VENICE, ITALY - APRIL 19: A view of the Polish Pavilion at Giardini during the 60th Biennale Art ... [+]
On the Culture Front.
Ukrainian Artists at the Venice Biennale.
Ukrainian contemporary artists are represented at both Ukraine’s and Poland’s pavilions at the 60th Venice Biennale international art exhibition, which opened April 20. The Ukrainian Institute’s “Net Making” art showcase inspired by the practice of collective weaving of camouflage nets for the war effort, is on view in the Ukraine pavilion. It is curated by Victoria Bavykina and Max Gorbatsky and features works of such artists as Katia Buchatska, Andrii Dostliev and Lia Dostlieva.
“Repeat After Me,” a video installation by the Open Group artist collective, is the Ukrainian exhibit at the Polish pavilion. It features refugees from eastern Ukraine, who are asked to share their war memories by mimicking sounds they witnessed as they were caught in Russian fire. “Reproducing various types of weapons, they conduct a kind of karaoke instruction, which, while transmitting simple sound sequences, is still unable to convey the experience that exists nearby, the experience that has become the price for this knowledge,” the video’s creators say in the piece’s concept paper. “This skill speaks about the new reality in which Ukrainians currently live.”
The exhibition From Ukraine: Dare to Dream organized by the Pinchuk Art Centre is on view at the Venice Biennale through August 1st. The exhibition shows a tapestry of stories and hopes grown within the shadows of global conflicts, and includes 22 artists and collectives.
World.
In the heart of Kyiv, at the Pinchuk Art Centre, the Power Theory exhibition by Odesa-born painter Oleksandr Roitburd (1961-2021), is open to visitors until July 14. The exhibit reflects on the dynamics of culture, society and power, in the context of the metamorphosis of Ukrainian and world politics. Featured are Rothbard’s paintings and performance installations that emerged as the artist’s very distinctive vision of how political leaders, thinkers and other powerholders determine the course of modern history and thus, humankind. His paintings include a depiction of Ukraine’s ex-president Victor Yushchenko sitting on a horse – Roitburd’s analogy for unfulfilled expectations – as well as a nude Vladimir Lenin in an unusually provocative pose.
Ukrainian art initiative Rukh Art Hub, together with nonprofit Razom for Ukraine, are staging “The Victims of Grenouille” modern art exhibit at Mriya Gallery in New York City through April 27. The exhibit is the first solo show for rising Ukrainian contemporary artist Oleksii Shcherbak, who manifests his memories through grotesque forms and imagery with a Victorian aesthetic. “I became interested in exploring my unconscious intent to paint a fleeting aura of scent — from a vivid assortment of sprouts blossoming in the spring … to an intense and heavy mist of hues that reek of an exhausted city,” the artist said in a comment. “I wanted to explore the way the odors suddenly appear, overpower your senses, and then mysteriously vanish from a canvas that is your subconscious.”
Constructing Hope: Ukraine exhibition will open at the New York Center for Architecture on May 2nd. Over a dozen creative projects will showcase architectural vision of Ukraine’s short and long-term reconstruction efforts, by Ukrainian architects and urban design groups such as Kharkiv School of Architecture, The Center for Spatial Technologies (Kyiv-Berlin), and others.
By Daria Dzysiuk, Karina L. Tahiliani
