ARTIST STATEMENT

THE WORKS FROM THE GUAPO SERIES EXIST ON THREE LEVELS: MOMENT, SPACE, AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT.
This allows them to take on the qualities of reportage-almost a journalistic testimony that seems to disappear with each passing day.

But that’s not entirely true.
Each composition arises from its own “other side” — a fragment that didn’t fit into my reality but, for some reason, was lived through by me. For example, a naked Mexican man smoking on a Kyiv balcony — a scene both wild and ordinary. He’s still close, but soon, he’ll be back among the heat and cacti. I’ve never seen him and likely won’t see him anytime soon.

This episode struck me with its tragicomic nature, and that’s when I began collecting Kyiv queer folklore and paying attention to symbols. Like the symbol of the sauna — almost antique, Roman in origin, the banya in Slavic homes was the only place believed to mark the boundary between the world of the living and the dead. According to legend, it was a site of violence and suicides, where demons dwelled.

There’s one just like that in a Kyiv neighborhood — now a space for the queer community. But inside it, it’s not people but anthropomorphic creatures, like ancient Egyptian deities, circling their purgatory, not seeking peace but pleasure.

The Red Sauna became a key work for me — and a folkloric symbol. The fight there has a different gravity. Despite its mythological tone, the narrative is painfully domestic — and emblematic of the Ukrainian queer experience of recent years, where the pursuit of love and self-acceptance stands side by side with violence and brutality.

Text by Oleksandra Nesen.

The exhibition was created during creative residency within the Art Platform of the Ukrainian-Danish Youth House.

Mykyta Shkliaruk was born in Sevastopol in 2002. He began withdrawing, later turned to video and editing, and is now focused on painting to document everyday experiences. His works gravitate toward a kind of documentary — fragments where the personal and political intertwine.

He identifies as a queer artist. In his practice, he explores gay folklore, intimate imagination, and domestic imagery — carefully tracing the outlines of local queer archetypes. The artist lives and works in Kyiv.