In his artistic practice, Kovach explores the urban landscape—natural and political—and its impact on the inhabitants. The show results from his observations on the urban environment’s transformation influenced by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The project began in autumn 2022 and is ongoing, finding expression in etchings, objects, and video installations.
The appearance of roadblocks and fortifications in Kyiv’s public environment creates a sense of security. Still, at the same time, it makes movement through the city more difficult and serves as a constant reminder of danger. Kovach does not depict human beings in his works. However, the abandoned objects, structures and barricades remind about their presence in the way the environment adapts to the human body. In video essays, he also captures the dynamics of human interaction with the urban landscape, where the viewer’s gaze drifts through familiar streets before suddenly plunging into a trench or fortification, finding itself below the usual horizon line.
In his graphic works, the artist reinterprets etching, a medium traditionally used to create maps, record routes, and archive the natural features of a region. Since photographing military targets was prohibited, Kovach created sketches that later turned into imprints. However, for him, it was not just about documentation but also about conveying the sensory aspect of the experience without losing emotion during the multi-step technical process of creating etchings.
Over time, the barricades and trenches in the city became overgrown with shrubs. The mixed soil favoured the rapid germination of grasses, turning Kyiv’s temporary military architecture into thickets. Kovach’s etchings captured this expressive interweaving—wild in form, abstract in its silhouettes, and already uncertain in function. However, in these images, we can still discern the fortifications that urban nature has now taken over.
“Taras didn’t put his artistic practice on hold during the years of full-scale war. Instead, it dissolved into his other activities, such as volunteering and long walks through the city. Ultimately, it was enriched by this intense experience of almost continuous presence in wartime Kyiv. We have always been impressed by Taras’s dedication to etching, particularly his ability to adapt this meticulous 'classical' technique to various conceptual challenges.
Specifically, Taras turned to the historical archival potential of life sketches and etching prints—preserving the images of many peculiar new formations in the urban landscape, overlooked by the omnipresent yet selective media documentation. In the final series of prints and videos, the artist reflects on the state of (in)security that permeates life in a city under martial law. The symbolic elements of this new 'minor architecture' have been fused with graphic art and brought into the gallery space—transforming it in an unprecedentedly tangible way,” comment Maria Lanko and Lizaveta German.
