Artists

Melnychuk-Burlaka Group

IVAN MELNYCHUK AND OLEKSANDR BURLAKA were both born 1982 in Kyiv, Ukraine, where they currently live and work. They are architects, members of the Grupa predmetiv group, who specialize in documenting and studying urban transformations. Burlaka is also a member of the Hudrada curatorial association and was a researcher for the exhibition project Trespassing Modernities, SALT Galata, Istanbul. Both artists are participants in the art program Bergen Assembly 2013.

Ivan Melnychuk and Oleksandr Burlaka’s practice is a critical reflection on how the architectural heritage and the urban context in the post-Soviet space are transformed in, and sometimes erased from, our collective memory. Trained as architects they question and study the role, ideology and responsibility of architects today.

For the exhibition of the 20 shortlisted artists for the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2013, Melnychuk and Burlaka present a number of real, unfinished or utopian architectural projects from the urban context of Kyiv. These projects aim to develop the city as a commercial space where architects abandon their responsibility and only function to execute the wish of the client. The complete work functions a manifest for the accountability of the architect towards the city as living environment and heritage.