YOUNG WILD AND FULL OF ***

SOFIYA LORIASHVILI
31.10.2026 - 30.11.2026

Originally, the phrase might lead somewhere obvious, but we refuse to finish this sentence. In the gaze of Sofiya, Ukrainian youth — including herself — become a list of possibilities: they can be full of sexiness, loyalty, fear, determination, anxiety, creativity, cum, freedom, uniqueness, resilience, style, stupidity, desire, and so on.

Perhaps those in Ukraine really are more reckless. Perhaps living in a country where the future has repeatedly been interrupted produces a particular relationship to the present. When there is no guarantee that the next year, the next summer, or even tomorrow will look the way you imagine it, there is something seductive about acting as if it does not matter. This is a feeling we’ve developed on a somewhat biological level. To live under these conditions can mean being simultaneously anxious and euphoric, terrified and horny, exhausted and completely alive. The nudity and explicitness are part of this contradiction. They are impossible to separate from the question of how young people continue to inhabit their bodies, desires, and relationships while living in the constant presence of danger.

The artist explores how the new contexts and moralities of war, unknown to the outside world, are projected onto the minds of Ukrainian youth. On the other hand, we do not live on a different planet. We are raving, flirting, drinking, dressing up, getting high, making out, expressing ourselves, looking bored, looking beautiful, looking for ways to help the country. The gestures are recognizable. The music is the same. The clothes, references, desires, and jokes belong to the same global culture that circulates across borders. We scroll through the same feeds, listen to the same DJs, admire the same next hot pop stars, and have the same ideas of what it means to be free.

There’s a certain economy to this gaze: Ukraine becomes interesting when it looks sufficiently exotic. The unique Slavic environments make an otherwise familiar generation appear interesting enough to be noticed by foreigners. Sex, attraction, exhibitionism, and physical freedom can appear almost excessive against these backgrounds. But the excess is precisely the point. The body becomes a place where the present can still be experienced directly.

Maybe the most exotic thing about Ukrainian youth is not that we are so different. Maybe it’s the fact that, despite everything, we are not that different at all.

PRESS

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