Power Verticals. Plywood colonnades

Exhibitions

At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on November 27, 2014, an exhibition of contemporary Ukrainian art Power Verticals. Plywood colonnades opened. The vertical, as the project authors claim, embodies a rapid forward movement and the aspiration to overcome new heights in contrast to sleepy horizontals. The works presented in the project reflect the break that occurred in the socio-political life of our country and led to the Revolution of Dignity.

“Art changes people and the world around them. Today, more than ever, we need and strive for change. So I want art to help us with this. The exhibition of contemporary Ukrainian art Power Verticals. Plywood Colonnades is precisely a catalyst for changes in perception by foreigners who will visit the MFA of Ukraine, as well as by our diplomats, whose neighbors will for the first time be works by talented Ukrainian authors.

Maidan caused a real artistic surge. Cultural diplomacy will help convert it into strengthening Ukraine’s positions in the world. We are reforming the mechanisms of representing Ukrainian art abroad according to the best world practices.

Maidan also became the last stop on the route Post-Soviet Ukraine. I am confident that Ukrainians have already switched to the new line “New European Ukraine.” I really want diplomats and artists, curators, critics to move forward on it together.”

Pavlo Klimkin,

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine

The exhibition is the first curatorial project in the artistic space of the MFA of Ukraine. For its implementation, the ministry invited independent curators Liza Herman and Maria Lanko. The exhibition features works by Anna Zvyagintseva, the SOSka group, Yuriy Kruchak, Andriy Boyarov, Lesya Khomenko, Andriy Stegura, Rostyslav Koterlin, Alevtina Kahidze, Anatoliy Byelov, the R.E.P. group, Yevheniya Byelorusets, and Sasha Kurmaz. The exhibition design was developed by architect and artist Oleksandr Burlaka.

“The exhibition represents the practices of Ukrainian artists of the last ten years. The subject of artistic research is problems and phenomena that lie outside official and public discourses and are not part of the regulated representation of the country for both external and internal audiences. In this sense, the exhibition works against the context of its presentation — a closed state institution. The focus of the exhibition is the emancipated view of artists on silenced, undesirable, and unpopular topics, traumatic experiences, and uncomfortable stories that together form the “other,” free from ideological constructions and outdated stereotypes image of the country. Presented in a completely new and unusual territory for contemporary art and public discussions, in the zone of official international events of the MFA, the exhibition offers viewers possible models for understanding Ukraine during the period of “rebooting” the social idea — a complex, diverse Ukraine rich in individual positions and opinions,” the curators noted while commenting on the project.

Special Envoy of the MFA Dmytro Kuleba noted: “The exhibition is another step in reforming approaches to representing Ukrainian culture for foreign audiences. For the first time, official representatives and delegations of foreign states visiting the ministry see not Soviet or post-Soviet, but contemporary Ukrainian art. The exhibition also creates a fundamentally new atmosphere directly in the working space of Ukrainian diplomats.”

Partners of the exhibition were:

Partner – Nova Poshta;

Innovation Partner – Samsung;

Information Partner – Ukrainian Crisis Media Center;

Art Partner – Artcult foundation.

Title variant: Power Verticals. Plywood Colonnades, Властные вертикали. Фанерные колоннады