Alevtina Kakhidze. Invitation to Australia, or A One-Story Museum, 2002. Installation

Description

Invitation to Australia, or A One-Story Museum is an exhibition-installation by Alevtina Kakhidze, which the artist considers the starting point of her practice. The project emerged after the artist was denied an Australian visa. Although she had received an invitation from her friend, local artist Udo Kogler, to visit the country—a letter meant to strengthen her application—the Australian embassy refused her visa on the grounds that, in their view, she lacked sufficient reason to return to Ukraine on time. As reasons to return, she had listed patriotism, studying in Ukraine, and marriage; the purpose of the trip was to explore contemporary Australian art and to travel.

The artist collected her correspondence with Udo Kogler, her visa application documents, and other archival materials and presented them as an installation, along with a poster showing a symbolic map of Australia and a stamp from the Australian Embassy in Moscow. The project was presented at the Center for Contemporary Art at NaUKMA as the outcome of a competition for young artists and curators, which Alevtina Kakhidze won by submitting a proposal for a completed project to an open call.