Beginning the 2025 program, "Novoriznica Beograd" gallery presents an exhibition by a contemporary Russian artist, for whom female identity becomes the key to understanding an unstable reality.

The world is precarious, full of conflicts and dangers, and it is in this context that Maria Pogorzhelskaya creates her works, focusing on the female experience. In her works, a woman is not only a symbol of fragility and vulnerability, but also a powerful conductor of emotional strength, penetrating through layers of premonitions, memories and ghostly hopes.

A woman in Pogorzhelskaya’s works is not a fixed image, but a dynamic embodiment of struggle, expectations and hopes, which is not constrained by the framework of traditional ideas. Her heroines act not only as objects of gaze, but also as active subjects, capable of rethinking their position in a world full of conflicts. Thus, Pogorzhelskaya’s art becomes an act of resistance to social stereotypes and at the same time a call to continue the conversation about the modern role of women.

The artist's works resonate with the concept of vulnerability by Judith Butler and Emmanuel Levinas. Vulnerability, according to Butler, is not just weakness, but the basis of human community and solidarity. Levinas, in turn, emphasizes the ethical dimension of this state, which is born at the moment of recognition of another. In Pogorzelska's work, female fragility acquires an ethical meaning, becoming a symbol of internal resilience based on the ability to feel and empathize. Her works encourage the viewer to share this experience, revealing internal conflicts and the beauty of everyday life that often go unnoticed.

An equally important part of Pogorzelska's work is her work with memory and time, which can be viewed through the works of Paul Ricoeur and Henri Bergson. Memory, according to Ricoeur, forms identity, but always retains an element of subjectivity. Bergson sees time as a flow that cannot be stopped, but can be captured in intuitive moments. In Pogorzhelskaya’s painting, these ideas take on a visual form: she captures fleeting states – expectations, premonitions, moments of peace that seem both personal and universal. Her works seem to slow down the passage of time, opening up the opportunity for the viewer to enter into a dialogue with their own memories.

This art is an act of participation that touches not only on individual emotions, but also on universal ideas, reminding us that in the awareness of fragility lies not weakness, but genuine strength and humanity.