Without Asking Permission
Exhibition of the Research Platform of the PinchukArtCentre
The Research Platform exhibition “Without Asking Permission” brings together works by Ukrainian artists created in the period between two revolutions — from 2004 to 2014 — in which the body emerges as a tool of self-determination and resistance. As civil society emerged during a time of major political change, artists began to speak more openly about personal and collective responsibility.
Artists took their work into the streets and squares to test its power, as protests had turned public space into a platform for society’s voice. Thus, in the performance How Long Can One Keep Screaming?, Piotr Armianovski makes his voice and body a form of direct resistance, speaking out against rising corruption and the pro-Russian reforms of President Viktor Yanukovych; meanwhile, Mykola Ridnyi stages an action outside the German Embassy in Kyiv, calling for simpler bureaucratic procedures for obtaining a Schengen visa. In her work Cage, Anna Zvyagintseva addresses political abuses of the legal system — both the persecution of individual artists and the unresolved cases related to the Maidan.
Artists rethink established ideas of the body shaped by post-Soviet morality, culture, and patriarchal values. Breaking down stereotypes of the “normal” body — attractive, heteronormative, and controlled — they instead turn to bodies that are real, vulnerable, and imperfect. Lesia Khomenko engages with the everyday experience of women’s labour; Alevtyna Kakhidze explores the social mechanisms through which identity is formed; and Alina Kleitman radically rethinks the stereotypes and clichés imposed on women.
While many 1990s artists focused on breaking moral taboos, artists of this period looked at the body and sexuality more carefully and in depth. In the series A Room of One’s Own, Yevheniia Belorusets documents the lives of LGBTQIA+ people and queer families, while Anatolii Bielov’s The Most Pornographic Book in the World opens up space for a conversation about different forms of intimacy and sexual self-expression.
The exhibition “Without Asking Permission” shows how artists explored the theme of corporeality in response to transformations in Ukrainian society that occurred during the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity. By advocating for equal rights and the importance of personal freedoms, they expanded the boundaries of perception and created new opportunities for future generations of Ukrainian artists. This period affirmed the importance of community-building, which enabled direct influence on political and social processes. It was through these horizontal networks that the strength of civil society gradually emerged.
The theme of Ukrainian art of the 2000s will be explored in greater detail in the forthcoming publication “Art Between Two Revolutions 2004–2014,” which the Research Platform has been working on over the past year. The book offers a broader perspective on this period, examining it through the lens of artistic processes as well as social and cultural transformations. The publication is being prepared by members of the PinchukArtCentre Research Platform: Yevheniia Butsykina, Tetiana Zhmurko, Oleksandra Mykhailenko, Milena Khomchenko, Kateryna Tsyhykalo, and Oksana Chornobrova.
Artists: Piotr Armianovski, Yevheniia Belorusets, Anatoliy Belov, Myroslav Vaida, Danylo Halkin, Anna Zvyagintseva, Taras Kammenoy, Alevtina Kakhidze, Alina Kleitman, Maria Kulikovska, Sasha Kurmaz, Serhii Melnychenko, Mykola Ridnyi, Lesia Khomenko, SOSka group
Curator: Daria Shevtsova
Manager: Alisa Dovbnia, Kateryna Melnyk
Production: Evhenii Hladich, Valentyn Shkorkin, Yevhenii Sulyma