i'ts a journey
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Solo Exhibition
July 3–18, 2025, L’Avant Galerie Vossen 58 Rue Chapon, 75003 Paris Presenting a multimedia installation exploring identity, cultural memory, and shifting femininity. The exhibition blends porcelain, video, and performance to reflect on symbolic oppositions – softness and strength, nostalgia and threat. A central motif is the axe: once a playful prop, it now serves as both a personal and cultural symbol rooted in post-Soviet memory and gendered experience. The show unfolds in two parts – first evoking sentimental domesticity, then shifting to a darker, digitally fractured world of censorship and misinterpretation. Curated by Albertine Meunier in collaboration with 0x4rt, the exhibition reflects on how meaning shifts across cultures and contexts. Opening: July 3 at 18:00 |
The journey
UNITY, Video '0''15, 2024
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This is a visual, performative, and exploratory journey.
It is an open-ended movement through symbols, memories, and contradictions – a celebration of valor, axes, and the circumstances that shape us. It begins with a gesture, a question, a spark – and follows where intuition, material, and context lead. This journey unfolds through performance, glitch, and bias – tools and disruptions that expose deeper layers of meaning. The works emerge spontaneously yet with intention, responding to place, presence, and perception. They exist across formats: presented in exhibitions, performed live, minted on various blockchains, or shared in unexpected moments. Each piece is both artifact and trace – part of an ongoing exploration that resists fixed form. |
prologue
It all started as a joke. INA VARE began posting images on social media of herself holding an axe to entertain fellow artist Empress Trash, who was obsessed with female wood chopping videos. This began in early 2023, and over time, INA and the axe became a meme within her community.
During the winter of 2023, INA VARE created a conceptual video artwork titled 'BEAR SERENITY', featuring her first appearance with an axe. The artwork was created for 'BITCHES, BUTCHES AND BEARS' curated by OONA and SamJ.
In December 2023, using bits of the same footage, INA VARE created a meme artwork related to the #TEZPOLE trend and minted it on the Tezos blockchain.
Later INA minted ''WEN AXE?' as a replay to Lorna Mills asking the same question.
During the winter of 2023, INA VARE created a conceptual video artwork titled 'BEAR SERENITY', featuring her first appearance with an axe. The artwork was created for 'BITCHES, BUTCHES AND BEARS' curated by OONA and SamJ.
In December 2023, using bits of the same footage, INA VARE created a meme artwork related to the #TEZPOLE trend and minted it on the Tezos blockchain.
Later INA minted ''WEN AXE?' as a replay to Lorna Mills asking the same question.
WEN AXE?, GIF, 2024
BEAR SERENITY, Video, 0' 32'', 2023
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#TEZPOLE, GIF, 2023
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MOTIVATIONAL SPEECH, GIF, 2024
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PART 1 - TIDES
THE TIDE IS COMING, GIF, 2024
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In the summer of 2024, INA VARE decided to elevate her axe performance with Part 1 - 'TIDES,' the opening chapter of the 'IT'S A JOURNEY' series.
These artworks depict the arrival of the main characters at the sea. INA describes it as a sea of opportunity that is cold and salty. There's not much to do here, so it's a good idea to practice some axe moves in the calm and chilly air. |
As this project intended to be cross-chain, the first mint, titled 'THE TIDE IS COMING,' occurred on the Tezos blockchain on June 7, 2024, and was auctioned as a single-edition NFT, but later pieces from Part 1 got minted on Base and Zora networks.
Part 1 of the Journey also ventured into Superchief Gallery's 'Remote Control' competition, and 'IT'S A SHADOW' was curated for screenings in Times Square for one week at the end of July 2024.
Part 1 of the Journey also ventured into Superchief Gallery's 'Remote Control' competition, and 'IT'S A SHADOW' was curated for screenings in Times Square for one week at the end of July 2024.
Drop on Foundation
THE TIDE IS CALM, GIF, 2024 / Base
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THE TIDE IS RISING, GIF, 2024 / Base
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THE TIDE IS MOVING ON, GIF, 2024 / Base
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Drop on Remote Control / Superchief
IT’S A SHADOW, Video '0''12, 2024 / Zora
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AMIDST THE TIDES, GIF, 2024 / Zora
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BEAUTIFUL HAZE, GIF, 2024 / Zora
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'IT'S A SHADOW' screening on Timesquare, August 1, 2024.
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'IT'S A SHADOW' was selected for screening on a Times Square billboard but faced unexpected censorship when the company deemed the artwork to involve "weapons." To avoid directly labeling it as "censored," they used the confusing term "private," overlaying it on an axe depicted in the piece.
This alteration was made without the artist's consent. Superchief Gallery later issued a public apology for the unauthorized "remix," but the term "private axe" sparked widespread discussion within the community. |
PART 2 - Echoes
RUNION, Video '0''15, 2024 / Base
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Part 2 - 'ECHOES' follows INA's journey into her childhood.
In these audiovisual artworks, INA explores her childhood cabin, finds the axe she learned to chop wood with, and reunites with the place and things that were so dear to her. The first piece 'REUNION' was minted on Base and included on 'INFANTILISM 3.0' curation and exhibition by Computer Art Auction House ACCOMPART'S. Following artworks 'UNITY' and 'MERCY' was minted on objkt.com in July 2024. |
UNITY, Video '0''15, 2024 / Tezos
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MERCY, Video '0''15, 2024 / Tezos
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to be continued...