On September 16, at 16:00 artist Marina Abramovic will give a public lecture “Artist Body / Public Body” at the invitation of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. The event is organized to coincide with the 14th YES Annual Meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine and will launch the public program accompanying the PinchukArtCentre’s “Fragile State” exhibition. 

The lecture will take place at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Main building (60, Volodymyrska Street, City of Kyiv, Ukraine). 

Since the beginning of her career in early 1970’s, Marina Abramovic has pioneered performance art, using the body and duration as her subject and medium. She founded Marina Abramovic Institute (MAI), now traveling institute for immaterial and durational work among all fields. In this public lecture, she will illustrate the development of the Abramovic Method as a collective experience designed for the public to connect with each other and themselves and will then present an emerging generation of performance artists from two recent MAI projects.

Fragility serves as the conceptual basis of the exhibition, reflecting a delicate state of vulnerability. This is the most salient characterization of today’s world. The term “Fragile State” is a reflection on the fragile state of the world order, and more abstractly, it refers to ideological, cultural and social vulnerability. At the same time, the concept of fragility relates to every individual personally, when it is about vulnerability of one’s body, state of mind and consciousness.  

The public program, along with the exhibition, will explore various interpretations and definitions of the concept in a series of events. Every event will examine various aspects of fragility: social, cultural, historical, philosophical and psychological. Indeed, according to many theories, fragility is a fundamental characterization for both people and states, profoundly private and political at the same time.

From September to October 2017, the program will feature lectures by prominent Ukrainian and international academicians, public figures, researchers and experts.  

Participation is free. Seating is limited. To take part in the lecture on September 16, please register here. Media are kindly asked to fill in the accreditation form here. 

Fragile State Public Program

• 13.09, 19:00 – Curatorial tour by Artistic Director of the PinchukArtCentre Björn Geldhof.
• 16.09, 16:00 – Lecture by Marina Abramovic.
• 20.09, 20:00 – Lecture by Pascal Gielen. Socio-cultural perspective of fragility.
• Pascal Gielen is the director of the research center Arts in Society at Groningen University where he serves as professor of sociology of art and cultural politics. 
• 28.09 – Lecture by Hrytsak Yaroslav. Historical perspective of fragility.
• Hrytsak Yaroslav is Ukrainian historian, Doctor of Historical Sciences and professor at the Ukrainian Catholic University. 
• 05.10 – Lecture on the philosophical perspective of fragility.
• 12.10 – Lecture on the psychological perspective of fragility.

About Marina Abramovic 

Since the beginning of her career in Belgrade during the early 1970s, Marina Abramovic has pioneered performance as a visual art form, creating some of the most important early works. The body has always been both her subject and medium. Exploring her physical and mental limits in works that ritualize the simple actions of everyday life, she has withstood pain, exhaustion and danger in her quest for emotional and spiritual transformation. Marina Abramovic has presented her work at major institutions in the US and Europe, including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1990; Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2005; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2010; Serpentine Gallery, London, 2014, etc. She has also participated in many large-scale international exhibitions including the Venice Biennale (1976 and 1997) and Documenta VI, VII and IX, Kassel (1977, 1982 and 1992). Abramovic was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Artist at the 1997 Venice Biennale for the video installation and performance “Balkan Baroque.”  

About YES 

Yalta European Strategy (YES) is a leading forum for discussing Ukraine’s European future and global context. YES fosters new ideas. It connects Ukraine to international partners, supports forces for change in the country, and builds networks of supporters for a new Ukraine worldwide.

For over a decade, YES has initiated dialog between leaders from Ukraine, the EU, the US, the Russian Federation, and beyond. Within Ukraine, it provides a platform for the government and opposition. It brings together leaders from politics, business, media, civil society and the expert community.

YES began in 2004, when Victor Pinchuk invited some 30 European leaders to debate the future of Ukraine and the EU at the first Annual Meeting. 

YES Annual Meeting took place at the symbolic Livadia Palace in Yalta from 2004 to 2013. The location where Europe was divided in 1945 thus became the venue for uniting a wider Europe. After the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, the YES Annual Meeting moved to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

YES meetings have brought together heads of state and government such as Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Bill Clinton, Dalia Grybauskaitė, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Bronisław Komorowski, Mario Monti, Shimon Peres and Donald Trump. Among the speakers were also heads of international organizations like Kofi Annan, José Manuel Barroso, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Ronald Noble, James Wolfensohn, Lamberto Zannier and Robert Zoellick. Senior officials, such as Hillary Clinton, Valdis Dombrovskis, Robert Gates, Johannes Hahn, Chrystia Freeland, Victoria Nuland, Condoleezza Rice and Martin Schulz, have spoken at the meetings. In addition, thinkers and social leaders like Richard Branson, German Gref, Richard Haass, Niall Ferguson, Alexei Kudrin, Arthur Laffer, Yurii Milner, Larry Summers, Nouriel Roubini and Strobe Talbott have been among the panelists. Presidents and Prime Ministers of Ukraine, as well as Ukraine’s political, business and social leaders, regularly speak at the meetings. 

The YES board includes Aleksander Kwaśniewski, President of Poland (1995-2005), Chairman of the YES Board; Carl Bildt, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden (2006-2014), Prime Minister of Sweden (1991-1994); Pat Cox, President of the European Parliament (2002-2004), Member of the European Parliament (1989-2004); Stephane Fouks, Vice President of Havas Group, Executive Co-Chairman of Havas Worldwide; Wolfgang Ischinger, Ambassador, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Senior Professor, Hertie School of Governance; Victor Pinchuk, Founder and Member of the Board, YES and Founder of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and EastOne group; and Javier Solana, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1995-1999), High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union (1999-2009), distinguished fellow in Foreign Policy at Brookings.

Official site: www.yes-ukraine.org 

Contacts for media-inquires:
Tel.: +38 044 494-1148, 
[email protected]