Since her residency at the 18th Street Arts Center four years ago, artist Maria Agureeva has been based in Los Angeles. Born in Ukraine and attending art school in Moscow, she travels periodically to Moscow, where a gallery supports her work and various collaborative projects. All of that has now collapsed, and she has been left with nothing. Russian artists and intelligentsia have been leaving to escape the growing oppression of the Russian State. On March 8, Maria fled with her daughter while there were still several border crossings open. With the help of a small network of friends, they landed in Berlin at the UfaFabrik International Art Center. It will be just one stop on her journey going forward and returning to Los Angeles. Her story and observations, and those of other artists during this time of war, are the subject of her blog. —Clayton Campbell

Maria Agureeva, Dust, multi channel video installation, live sound art by Godtease, 58 min. Coaxial Arts Foundation, Los Angeles, 2019

March 24, 2022

I would like to start this blog from the moment I left Russia, March 8—perhaps forever—from the moment one chapter of my life ended and a new one began, where there are no plans and no understanding of what the future will be like.

I was on the verge of giving up my fleeing Russia when the Russian customs denied my invitation letter for a foreign artist residency on the Finnish border. My daughter and I went to the railway station and bought train tickets, without any guarantee that we would be let through. We were able to persuade them, because in Russia March 8 is a holiday: International Women’s Day. I will now remember that date with warmth for other reasons!

Technosphere, Supercollider Gallery x Femmebit, Spring Break Art Show, Los Angeles 2020. Curators: Richelle Gribble, Janna Avner. Artwork: Maria Agureeva, Untitled, plastic, neon, wood, synthetic fabric, mixed media, 69 x 31 x 27 inches, 2019

I have always been far from politics; I thought in other categories, which was reflected in my work. But there is now an exception. The war between the country in which I was born (Ukraine) and the country in which, despite everything, I was able to become an artist (Russia), breaks my worldview. Currently, my concern as an artist is with environmental issues and the anthropological impact on nature. Now, I understand that there are sudden events in life that change the picture of the world. I experience this consciously and with wide open eyes. When grown men compare who has the bigger dick—changing the topography of the continents—their toxic testosterone poisons everything, oozing through the pores of people on both sides of the front, releasing hatred, corrupting consciousness and nature.

The lack of freedom to think, to express one’s opinion—including in art—has led to this war. It is not a consequence of the will of one person. The majority of the Russian population consciously abandoned freedom and will. This was their choice. It was driven by State officials who competed among themselves to create laws that restricted freedom. I think of how science-fiction writers in Russia (very popular among thinking people) foreshadowed what I experience now. During the Soviet Union, the Strugatsky Brothers wrote the novel Inhabited Island. It describes a planet where a group of “fathers” rules in one of the countries. To control the population, they destroy free people while the majority of the population sings patriotic hymns. On the first day of the war, I found myself in the pages of this novel; my colleagues and I in emotional pain, and the majority of the population vehemently supporting the government’s actions.

Maria Agureeva, Berlin, March 23, 2022

We artists need to stay sober. To do this, we must look for places and opportunities to continue to work, reflect and create. We are just a part of history that always moves through cataclysms and wars. It must be condemned, it must be prevented, and it must be experienced when it is no longer possible to change. I could not work now in Russia where the war found me. Artists must continue to communicate with people like ourselves who are ready to speak up and perceive truth through the language of images and meanings.

— Maria Agureeva. http://agureeva.com