AZA NIZI MAZA ART STUDIO
About 40 children aged 5 to 17 worked on the collective project Lost Fairy Tales by Aza Nizi Maza Studio.
The goal was to create a collection of “ancient art” inspired by the baroque collections of European museums. The project sought to make up for the lack of a similar museum nearby by forming its own imaginary exhibition.
The collection of The Missing Museum consists of paintings depicting the legends that seem to have been forgotten, the fairy tales that have not been written down, the plot of which is now incomprehensible.
First of all, young artists depicted elements found in ancient frescoes, botanical atlases, on medieval maps, in bestiaries and manuscripts. Rose hips and seashells, crystals and bones, bats and frogs, lions, deer, amulets and musical instruments became parts of a picture of the world, where yet unknown plots would unfold.
The next step was to find images for future characters. The participants drew figures of beggars and princesses, saints and robbers, faces of wise men and witches, children and those who had already seen everything. They tried the faces on the figures, seeking to find a character that would add a sense of truthfulness to this fairy tale.
Once the characters were defined, the process of assembling the plots took place—like a big construction set, reinforcing the characters’ personalities with the details that simultaneously enhanced the emotionality of each work.
The story is born when the viewer meets the painting. It is the viewer who decides: is this the finale or the beginning of future adventures? Has the character already changed under the influence of circumstances, or is this the beginning of a stunning transformation?
The right to dream up this story belongs to the viewer.
The fairy tale starts existing, even though it was never written.
BIOGRAPHY
Aza Nizi Maza is an art studio founded in Kharkiv in 2012.
Children and teenagers aged 5 to 18 are engaged here. One of the key directions of the studio’s activity is inclusion. Among the studio’s pupils, there are approximately 15 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and Down syndrome.
The studio positions itself as an artistic group focused on creating collective projects, where the personal development of each participant contributes to achieving a common result. The basis of the studio’s activity is the mutual reinforcement of the artists’ creative qualities in the process of cooperation, which enables it to launch large-scale and complex artistic initiatives.
Over the years of the studio’s existence, numerous exhibition projects have been implemented. One of the most significant is a cycle of 12 art panels created in the spring of 2022 on the columns of the Historical Museum metro station in Kharkiv. This project was carried out together with the children who lived in the metro, using it as a bomb shelter, during the intense shelling of the city.