Lives and works in Kyiv. He started to engage with photography in a professional manner in 2005. Since 2013 has been working on independent documentary projects. The main subject of the artist’s exploration is the urban environment that becomes the main "battlefield" for ideological collisions, the city that becomes the "map" of the invisible tensions that exist in the society. At the moment, Nikiforov's main project is an investigation of the collapse of the Soviet cultural heritage in Ukraine and the transformation of the public space after the Revolution of Dignity (2013-14). On Republic’s Monuments - series In April 2015, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a law that condemned the communist and Nazi regimes as totalitarian and prohibited the corresponding symbols and propaganda. In practice, this so-called law on decommunization meant that all visual objects related to the commemoration of Soviet history, as well as monuments to communist leaders, had to be destroyed in the country. In large cities, the monuments were dismantled rather quickly, and this process has become known as “Leninopad” (The Fall of Lenins). But the further fate of little and distant objects is more ambiguous because in small towns and villages the political pressure of the center is felt less intensively. Decommunization and the contradictions, associated with it, are one of the most important subjects of contemporary Ukrainian art. The preservation of Soviet mosaics, which the current government of the country tried to destroy within the struggle against the ideological symbols of the totalitarian era, has become a unifying factor for a huge number of artists and activists. The result of a large-scale study of Soviet mosaics was the book by Yevgeny Nikiforov Decommunized: Soviet Mosaics in Ukraine, released by the Kyiv-based publishing house Osnovy in 2017. The war with Soviet monuments after the scandalous destruction of the statue of Lenin in Kyiv became a national Ukrainian sport during the Maidan. The new project of Nikiforov On Republic's Monuments is dedicated to mechanisms of memory and the complexities of their functioning. Yevgeny Nikiforov’s practice is an attempt to reflect the essence of the place that on account of the influence of time or economic, social, and natural factors is in a transitional state. Numerous granite chieftains, plaster pioneers, cast iron soldiers and stone workers appear redone, vandalized, concealed or decorated. Nikiforov’s project challenges the "double bottom" of the official policy of memory and draws attention to the lack of civilized mechanisms to work with the past in modern Ukraine.
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On Republic’s Monuments - Monument to the soldiers of the First Cavalry Army near Olesko, Lviv region
The monument was placed above the Kyiv-Lviv highway. It was made of precious copper. Gradually the locals disassembled it for the metal.
On Republic’s Monuments - Hand of the monument to Lenin in Zaporizhia
he 16-ton bronze monument of Lenin is temporarily stored on the territory of municipal services in Zaporizhia after its dismantlement from the city center. The monument was one of the largest in Ukraine. The disassembling, that was broadcasted online, took a couple of days.
On Republic’s Monuments - Demolished monument to Engels in a repository of an oil mill in the village of Mala Pereshchepina, Poltava region.
The head of the village council decided to preserve the monument to Engels "until better days come" and placed it in the open space of the private oil mill. In Soviet times, Mala Pereshchepina was a collective farm named after Friedrich Engels.
On Republic’s Monuments - Monument to Friedrich Engels, hidden behind a grocery store in one of the villages of the Poltava region.
The monument to Engels was dismantled from the pedestal and temporarily moved to the backyard of the local grocery store. The local community did not want the monument to be destroyed and found the transitory storage for it.
On Republic’s Monuments - Monument to pioneers, painted by activists, Novovolynsk, Volyn region.
A typical sculptural group of Soviet pioneers next to the former Young Pioneer Palace was repainted in the colors of the national flag and the PLAST uniform, a patriotic organization for the youth.
On Republic’s Monuments -Temple of the First Martyr and Archdeacon Stephen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), Kryvyi Rih
A typical pseudo-classical house of culture was rebuilt for the needs of the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. In the early period of the USSR, a large number of churches were reconstructed into warehouses, closed, destroyed or transformed into houses of culture.
On Republic’s Monuments -Dismantled remnants of a sculptural group in Zaporizhia
A typical monument to workers is temporarily stored in a repository of the municipal services after its dismantlement from the city center.
On Republic’s Monuments -Monument to Vladimir Lenin, Lysychansk
Like many other Soviet monuments in public space, the stone monument to Vladimir Lenin, located at the central square of Lysychansk, was partially painted in the yellow-blue colors of the national flag of Ukraine by unknown activists. The monument was dismantled soon after.
On Republic’s Monuments - Empty Pedestal, Kramatorsk
One of the thousands of pedestals left throughout the country after the so-called the "Leninopad [The Fall of Lenins]". Empty pedestals usually remain unchanged after the dismantlement of monuments until local authorities decide on how to proceed.
On Republic’s Monuments - Monument to Mykola Shchors, Kyiv
For almost two years all sides of the equestrian statue with a total height of 13.8 meters has being covered with a cloth in the national colors. The further fate of the monument is unknown.
On Republic’s Monuments - Monument to Vladimir Lenin, Zaporizhia
In support of the national football team of Ukraine within the UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying matches, the fans put a football uniform in the colors of the national Ukrainian team on the monument to Lenin. Before, it had been embellished with an embroidered shirt.