The exhibition “Holding One’s Breath” by Yaryna Shumska is about experiencing the loss of a loved one and finding a new sense of grounding. The project was created with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation within the framework of its “Scholarships” program.
In Yaryna Shumska’s works, “holding one’s breath” becomes an artistic gesture. The exhibition unfolds across three gallery spaces, each transformed into thematic installations composed of paintings, objects, photographs, video performances, and text.
“‘Holding One’s Breath’ is about the loss of someone close, a beloved person, a best friend, a reliable support — ultimately, the loss of one’s horizon. And yet, it is also about living through this experience and moving forward — towards life and into life, embracing constant imbalance and fragility as a given, as a permanent state,” says the exhibition’s curator, Daryna Skrynnyk-Myska.
In each room, Yaryna Shumska shares her personal experience of life after loss — from numbness and grief to attempts at restoring a sense of balance.
“When living through loss, a person changes — they feel, grieve, and rejoice in new ways. This journey is reflected in the body. The body remembers everything, connecting the inner and outer worlds. It is grounded and balanced when it moves, when it acts. In performance, the body is always in conscious motion. Perhaps that is why this practice feels so relevant today. Performance is also about co-presence with another person. It is often through the other that we see ourselves more clearly. Sometimes we repeat someone else’s movements just to converse with our own body, with ourselves. Today, it is essential for all of us to have something to hold on to — to act, to help, to be present for one another. In almost every body there is a place of pain that needs healing. And when wounds are filled with love, healing comes, bringing faith and the strength to create — and thus, to live,” says Yaryna Shumska about her artistic practice.
The conceptual dimension of the project resonates with the ideas of Austrian psychotherapist and philosopher Viktor Frankl about the meaning of life, rooted in action, care, and love — a love that does not disappear even after loss.
As part of the exhibition, curatorial and artist-led tours, as well as workshops, are planned. Follow the announcements on the social media pages of the Lviv Municipal Art Center.
Info:
Yaryna Shumska (b. 1989, Lviv) is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, curator, and lecturer. She lives and works in Lviv. Her artistic and research practice focuses on the notion of presence, expressed through the body and the visual mark it creates. Presence, as an expression of the “here and now,” includes both what is spoken and what remains unsaid — the verbalized and the in-between.
She graduated from the Lviv National Academy of Arts. She is a grantee of the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage program Gaude Polonia, a nominee of the Young Ukrainian Artists Competition MYXi (2015), and the II Youth Biennale of Contemporary Art of Ukraine (2019). Shumska has held solo exhibitions and artistic projects in Ukraine, Poland, and Spain. She has participated in numerous exhibitions, conferences, and performance art festivals across Ukraine, Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
She is the co-organizer and co-curator of the School of Performance (2019), the online residencies On Site and Performance Archive. Ukraine (2020), and the International Festival Days of Performance Art in Lviv in collaboration with Czech FNAF (2024, 2025). Her recent works have been presented at the Nostre Mar Festival (Perpignan, France), Venice International Performance Art Week VIPAW (Venice, Italy), Matatoyo (Rome, Italy), and Arctic Action (Svalbard, Norway).
Daryna Skrynnyk-Myska (b. 1980, Lviv) is a PhD in Philosophy, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Contemporary Art Practices at the Lviv National Academy of Arts, researcher, and curator. She is also a guest lecturer at the Cultural Studies Department of the Ukrainian Catholic University. Daryna is the author of academic and journalistic articles, and a participant in conferences, round tables, and scholarly seminars. She is a guest lecturer, moderator, speaker at discussions, and a member of art competition juries.
She co-curated the projects Art of Resistance (Valencia, Spain, 2022), I Was Approaching a City I Didn’t Yet Know(Dnipro, 2021), Sacred Space (Lviv, 2020), the II Youth Biennale of Contemporary Art (Kharkiv, 2019), and Act of Transfer (Ivano-Frankivsk, 2018); and curated the project Oslapiia+Time (Lviv, 2021).
The exhibition opening: August 7 at 5:00 PM