An exhibition by Mariia Kulykivska, “My Body is a Battlefield. Copenhagen”, opens in Copenhagen — a powerful artistic manifesto about the body’s memory, war, and rebirth

The opening presented works from the artist’s “Pregnant Series” — sculptures cast from Kulykivska’s own body five months before the full-scale Russian invasion. Inside the transparent forms lie bullet casings, mine fragments, and dried flowers collected from frontline and war-affected regions of Ukraine. These figures embody life and death, fragility and strength — forces that coexist within the human body, which becomes, involuntarily, a “battlefield”.

Kulykivska, known for her radical yet poetic engagement with the body, continues to explore themes of displacement, loss of home, corporeality, and vulnerability as a form of resistance. After the occupation of Crimea, she became a «nomadic artist», working across Ukraine, Europe, and Scandinavia. She currently lives between Kyiv and London, where she is pursuing her PhD.

Her works have been exhibited at leading institutions including Neue Nationalgalerie (Berlin), Saatchi Gallery (London), Accelerator (Stockholm), Albertinum (Dresden), and Mystetskyi Arsenal (Kyiv), and are held in major international collections such as the Fenix Museum of Migration (Rotterdam).

The opening program began with welcome remarks by Nataliia Tkachenko, founder of Spilne Art, and Nataliia Popovych, Chairperson of the Ukrainian House in Denmark. This was followed by an Artist Talk with Mariia Kulykivska, which opened with a special address from Ukraine’s Minister of Culture, Tetyana Berezhna. The artist spoke about how the body retains the memory of war, how art becomes a means of processing trauma, and what it means to continue creating when the world around you is falling apart.

“Some will say that ‘war does not have a woman’s face,’ yet in Ukraine today it has thousands: soldiers and volunteers, mothers fleeing under fire, artists and writers who continue creating through grief and darkness. Mariia Kulykivska’s sculptures speak for them — for the women who gave birth in bomb shelters, who carry invisible wounds, who lost loved ones, and for the 50,000 serving now in Ukraine’s Armed Forces. For me, these works recall the moment I left Kyiv on 24 February, seeing countless women with children walking into uncertainty, and understanding that the first scar of war had already settled inside me. At Ukraine House in Denmark, we have spent the past three years ensuring that Ukrainian women’s voices — cultural, civic, and artistic — are seen and heard in Europe. This exhibition stands as a call for solidarity and a reminder that everyone who values freedom must stand with Ukraine until victory, because the scars carried by Ukrainian women today are a responsibility the world must not turn away from,” said Nataliia Popovych, chairperson of Ukraine House in Denmark.

The exhibition followed the early November gathering of Ministers of Culture from more than 40 countries in Copenhagen, focused on the role of culture and media in strengthening democratic resilience. During the forum, Ukraine’s Minister of Culture Tetyana Berezhna presented the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Fund (UCHF) — a new donor platform supporting Ukrainian museums, archives, and cultural institutions. The first contributions, totaling over €3 million, were announced by Denmark, the United Kingdom, Poland, and the Netherlands. As part of this high-level event, the Spilne Art team also presented Kulykivska’s works to international delegations. Her sculptures were met with deep respect and became an emotional focal point in discussions about shared European values and cultural responsibility in times of war.

The exhibition was made possible thanks to the support of Ukrainian companies Ajax Systems and MHP, which consistently invest in cultural initiatives and in strengthening the international visibility of Ukrainian art. It was also enabled by the state leadership of Minister of Culture Tetyana Berezhna and the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, whose efforts help ensure a more consistent and powerful global presence for Ukrainian culture.