The Research Platform of the PinchukArtCentre presents two exhibitions “Anonymous Society” and “Misplaced Touches” by Anna Zvyagintseva. With the aim to generate a living archive of Ukrainian contemporary art from the early 80ties till present, Research Platform visualizes the results of its work through constant exhibition practice.
“Anonymous Society” features works by Sergei Anufriev, Yevgenia Belorusets, Sergey Bratkov, Oleksandr Chekmenev, Oksana Chepelyk, Zhanna Kadyrova, Victor Palmov, Evgeny Pavlov, Serhiy Popov, Kirill Protsenko, Roman Pyatkovka, Larisa Rezun-Zvezdochetova, Oleksandr Roitburd, Vasyl Tsagolov, Leonid Voitsekhov.
The exhibition explores the period of anomie that Ukrainian society was plunged into after the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991), and that it languishes in to this day. The term “anomie,” coined by the French sociologist Émile Durkheim, describes a crisis-ridden transition period societies land in after political turmoil and changes in values when “the old gods are aging or are already dead, and others are not yet born.”
These situations when new behavioural paradigms are not yet formed raise the question of the role of inpiduals, their destructive potential and desire to make their voices heard, or to remain voiceless.
The performance of the Odessa-based artist Leonid Voitsekhov, entitled “They’ll Settle the Score With Us for It” (1984), marked the starting point of the exhibition. The performers carried a poster with this slogan through Odessa streets as a reaction to a disaster that left the city without power and water supply. When the police detained the performers and asked who the “they” of the poster might be, the artists replied, “The elemental forces.” Within the context of the exhibition, this gesture denotes the metaphorical pision of society into two opposite forces: us and them.
The exhibition consists of several chapters. The first addresses inpidual existence within the ideological standoff, from the emergence of heroes to their gradual devaluation; existence among double standards; and inpiduals evolving against the backdrop of changing political scenery. Chapter 2 treats self-awareness, inner struggle, collective memories and experiences. The last chapter deals with intimate physical experiences; addressing them is a manifestation of resistance against control over private lives.
In essence, within the context of the exhibition, “anonymous society” is a metaphor for the absence of society as such. Inpiduals had inherited distrust for discredited authorities, yet, driven by inertia, continue to live under the unseen gaze of the Big Brother. The exhibition seeks to discover the “I” and make it manifest. It foregrounds inpiduality, making its voice heard in the anonymous field of the deformed social and political reality, within the sphere of personal memories and subjective experiences.
РАС-UA: “Misplaced Touches”
PAC-UA presents the 6th project - a solo exhibition by Anna Zvyagintseva. “Misplaced Touches” is based on the idea of a trail, a trace, unconsciously following somebody else’s path, and paths that emerge from our imperceptible touches. In her works, the artist often makes manifest imperceptible, impalpable facets of our lives, showcasing their fragility and documenting elusive intangible moments.
“Misplaced Touches” features sculpture, graphic art, installations and animation, as well as found photographs of imperceptible touches in public and private life, from maternal to civic, discovered on social media. These ostensibly abstract works document and highlight elusive but physically lingering touches that exist on the plain of sensuous experience. The artist transforms this experience through the lens of various art media.
The monumental installation is based on a found photograph. The artist seems to anonymize the bodies, discarding their volume. The installation’s line connects the two exhibition spaces, turning into a line of contact, a metaphor for one territory’s or one body’s infringement on the other. The artist anonymizes these territories, stripping them of physical dimensions. The line remains a visible boundary for the act of infringement/touch, leaving the possibility of memory and memory traces of physical interactions.
Anna Zviagintseva was born in 1986 in Dnipropetrovsk. She lives and works in Kyiv. She graduated from the National Academy for fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv, Easel Painting Section. Member of the Hudrada curator group, co-editor of Prostory.net.ua online publication on art, letters and translation. Shortlisted artist of the MUHi 2010 young Ukrainian artists contest and the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2013. Winner of the special prize and of the Public Choice Prize under the PinchukArtCentre 2015 contest. In 2015, she represented the National Ukrainian Pavilion at the 56th Biennale di Venezia as part of the group exhibition “Hope”.
Curator of the both exhibitions is Tatiana Kochubinska.
