Exhibition of the 20 Artists Shortlisted for the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2020
The PinchukArtCentre (Kyiv, Ukraine) presents an exhibition of the 20 artists shortlisted for the sixth edition PinchukArtCentre Prize, a nationwide prize for Ukrainian artists aged 35 or younger. Featuring new and recent works, the show brings together a representative selection of artists and artist collectives from all over Ukraine including artists living abroad.
The artistic approaches of the 20 nominees vary considerably, yet they reflect the vision and thinking of the post-Maidan generation of Ukrainian art. Many of the artists are united by an intensive reflection on social problems and a critical view of archaic power structures. Prominent themes include the value of labor in the post-industrial era, media manipulation that affects political actions both in Ukraine and around the globe, and a celebration of gender identities that stand opposed to physical brutality, which is still a driving force in social processes. Whereas direct activism has been a leading practice, we are starting to see its substitution with gestures that aim to transform the experience and functionality of common urban space.
The 20 nominees for the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2020 were shortlisted by an independent selection committee from more than 1100 applicants. The shortlist includes: AntiGonna (32, Kyiv), Katya Вuchatska (32, Kyiv), Uli Golub (29, Kharkiv/Wroclaw), Pavlo Grazhdanskij (28, Kharkiv), Ksenia Hnylytska (35, Kyiv), Alexandra Kadzevich (26, Odessa), Nikolay Karabinovych (30, Odessa/Ghent), Anton Karyuk (31, Kyiv), Oksana Kazmina (35, Kyiv), Iryna Kudrya (32, Kyiv), Larion Lozovoy (31, Kyiv), Timothy Maxymenko (24, Kyiv), Elias Parvulesco (34, Kyiv), Valentina Petrova (34, Prague/Kyiv), Anna Scherbyna (31, Zaporizhzhia/Kyiv), Alina Sokolova (23, Uzhhorod/Vienna), Dmytro Starusiev (34, Makiivka) and the groups: 12345678910 Studio (Obraztsov Evgeniy, 25, Dnipro/Kyiv; Omelich Anastasiya, 23, Dnipro/Kyiv; Momot Mikita, 24, Dnipro), Yarema Malashchuk (26, Kolomiya/Kyiv) and Roman Himey (27, Kolomiya/Kyiv), Daniil Revkovskiy (26, Kharkiv) and Andriy Rachinskiy (29, Kharkiv).
This exhibition of the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2020 is curated by junior curator Alexandra Tryanova and co-curated by the artistic director of the PinchukArtCentre Bjorn Geldhof.
AntiGonna
AntiGonna Born in Vinnytsya in 1986. Lives and works in Kyiv, Odesa and Warsaw. Uses such media as performance, video and virtual reality. Studied painting at the Grekov Art College in Odesa. In 2016, together with cameraman Andriy Boyko, she launched a project called “Endless clinical record. Kyiv porn horrors (Part 1). SBIAN” and the trash porn series “AndriyAndreyeva”. Since 2016, she has taken part in performances by Mykhaylo Koptev’s “Orchid” Provocative Fashion Theatre. Took part in such queer festivals and exhibition projects as “4th International Horror Festival. Mostra Espantomania”, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2019), “Audience Awards”, New York, the USA (2019); “RabarBar Queer Festival”, Krakow, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Poznan, Poland (2019); “POMADA. Eden 8”, Warsaw, Poland (2018), “12th Internationale Berlin Porn Festival”, Berlin, Germany (2017), “Naughty Bodies”, the Bukhanchuk Museum of Fine Arts, Kmytiv, Ukraine (2019).
By addressing her own bodily experience and personal fears, AntiGonna speaks about the collective traumas of the Ukrainian society. By choosing the form of videos, the artist tells us about the taboo and the fearful, exploring the topic of gender violence.
The characters in her videos, played by some of the key personalities of the Kyiv underground scene, seem to protest against the established norms: despite the script provided by the artist, they play out their own story and give their personal interpretations of the chosen topic. Despair and aggression become transformative factors in her videos, they form a platform for a conversation about the deep desires and anxieties of society in a period of post-traumatic changes.
Katya Buchatska
Lives and works in Kyiv where she was born in 1987. Her projects explore the subject of timelessness, transformation and reincarnation of an object. Works with installation, sculpture, photography and painting. Studied at the Kyiv Publishing and Printing Institute and École Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Dijon, graduated from the National Academy of Arts and Architecture in Kyiv. A member of the initiative group seeking to conserve the heritage of Paraska Plytka-Gorytsvit. A member of the Montage group. Her selected projects include “Photos from last year”, the Small Gallery at the Art Arsenal, Kyiv (2019), “Be careful with this axe, Eugene”, AKT art space, Kyiv (2019), “Mara” together with Vitaliy Kokhan, Port Creative Hub, Kyiv (2017), “SpaceS, SpaceS Contemporary Art Exhibition”, Galerie La Cave, Geneva (2017), “Postcards from Maidan”, Lublin, Warsaw (2014).
Katya Buchatska’s installation reproduces a typical room in a natural history museum presenting exhibits of a temporary exhibition — archeological findings and archival documents focused around the figure of the paleontologist William Falconer. We know that Falconer was born in Edinburgh in the mid-19th century, studied paleofauna and died during an expedition under mysterious circumstances. The researcher’s remains, conserved in gypsum, have been preserved due to the efforts of his assistant. The unusual fact that Falconer’s body has become a part of a fossil collection draws attention to his personal diary. Partially represented in the exposition in the form of a printout, the diary reveals the details about the causes of Falconer’s tendency to self-harm.
In the glass showcases, Buchatska demonstrates a dinosaur bone (the so-called Edinburgh specimen found by Falconer), a gypsum cast of a man’s body, and a handwritten diary. The installation is titled the Pain Record, which refers to one of the versions of the paleontologist’s death — suicide in a flow of hot lava, which can preserve the form of a body, but leaves it empty.
Using only three objects, the artist tells a personal story from the 19th century, far removed from her own context. In her practices, Buchatska often works with the topic of time, applies the methods of media archeology and uses the tactic of “soft” intervention in the environment (gallery, museum or natural space). In the Pain Record, the artist draws attention to the found objects at an archeological distance and raises the question of their meaning for a contemporary viewer, the role of the author in this kind of artistic gesture, and the ability to perceive the drama hidden behind the objects when you are on this side of the glass case.
Katya Buchatska. Pain record. 2020
Ksenia Hnylytska
Lives and works in Kyiv where she was born in 1984. Uses painting, graphics, ceramics and video in her artistic practice. Studied at the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture, the Faculty of Painting. A co-founder and member of the R.E.P. and Khudrada groups. Took part in personal and group exhibitions. Some of the selected projects are “Stratigraphy”, Vozdvizhenka 32, Kyiv (2016), “Degree of dependence”, Awangarda, Wroclaw, Poland (2016), “Lest the two seas meet”, Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie, Warsaw (2015), “Colour test”, the Small Gallery at the Art Arsenal, Kyiv (2013), Gyumri Biennial (as part of the R.E.P. group), Gyumri, Armenia (2008).
In her work titled The Dream of Pier Micheli, or The Monument to the Victory of Saprotrophs, Ksenia Hnylytska offers her visionary view of potential future: as a result of humanity’s self-destruction, the most ancient kinds of life — fungi and bacteria — will dominate planet Earth again. Her sculptural composition appeals to the typical posthuman image: living nature seizes and populates the remnants of human civilization, embodied in the image of ceramic columns. Ironically, the style of Hnylytska’s columns can remind us of the architecture of the Stalinist Empire style, characterized by luxury, grandiosity and monumentality. It is the style of the primary architectural complex of the Kyiv Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy (now renamed as the National Complex “Expo Center of Ukraine”), particularly its Pavilion 6, “Technical Cultures”; the aesthetics of the pavilion served as an inspiration for the artist in creating this artwork.
Ksenia Hnylytska has consistently studied and depicted the world of plants and fungi for over ten years. However, in her new work, she moves on from painting and graphics, which are more usual for her, to three-dimensional sculpture constructed around a conceptual statement.
Ksenia Hnylytska. The Dream of Pier Micheli, or The Monument to the Victory of Saprotrophs. 2019–2020
The Second Special Prize Winner
Uli Golub
Born in Kharkiv in 1990, she currently lives and works in Oakland, the USA. Uses such media as video, installation, 3D animation and collage. A graduate of the Rodchenko School of Photography and Multimedia (Moscow) under the guidance of Sergey Bratkov and a post-graduate student at the Karazin National University. Took part in international exhibitions and biennale, including “Memories from the future. Incredible adventures of the bearded women. Behind the scene”, xpon-art gallery, Hamburg, Germany (2019), PinchukArtCentre Prize 2018, Kyiv, “I am not a robot”, Electro Museum, Moscow (2018), “Versus”, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv (2017), the Festival of Young Ukrainian Art, Art Arsenal, Kyiv (2017), “Trans-people. State of insecurity”, YermilovCentre, Kharkiv, Ukraine (2016).
In her work, Yuli Golub exposes the prejudice and fears of traditional western societies. The artist introduces a community of “aliens” into the story, bearded women who embody “otherness” with their appearance and behavior. For the owners of the house, a middle-aged married couple, these unwelcome guests come as a shock at first. They experience various emotional states: from hostility and confusion to compassion. When the hostess joins a hypnotic ritual dance with the women, she perceives the “aliens” through interaction with the bodies of “others.” The video illustrates the possible steps towards overcoming the rejection of “others” and the possible interaction between various communities and undefined identities.
Uli Golub. Look, She’s Got a Beard! 2019-2020
Pavlo Grazhdanskij
Born in Kharkiv in 1991. Lives and works in Kharkiv an St Petersburg. Studied at the School of Engaged Art Chto Delat in St Petersburg (2016). Founder and editor of the long-term art project Travmpunkt which researches Russian-Ukrainian realities on the basis of voluntary documentary writing and data analysis (2017). Co-founder of the Kropotkina 11 art space (2018). Among his selected personal and group projects are “Shelter”, Sörnäinen Bomb Shelter, Helsinki (2018), “Everything like the water”, Detenpyla Gallery, Lviv, Ukraine (2018), “It is already too much”, Roza’s Palace of Culture, St Petersburg, Russia (2018), “Get out while still healthy”, Autonomy squat, Kharkiv, Ukraine (2017).
In his work, Pavlo Grazhdanskij raises the issue of militarization of the broad population, which resulted from the long war in Donbas. Grazhdanskij’s work develops according to the logic of human life: from stories about the training of Ukrainian children and youth in military-patriotic camps to representation of everyday life of contract army soldiers and solemn burials after heroic deaths. Using video reports on the Ukrainian army and paramilitary associations, which he has found online, the author creates a critical expression about the general militarization.
Pavlo Grazhdanskij. Ponivecheno. 2020
Alexandra Kadzevich
Lives and works in Odesa where she was born in 1992. Her works are at the junction of painting, collage and sculpture. Graduated from the Grekov Art College, the Department of Art, in 2013. Received a scholarship for study in the Kyiv Academy of Media Arts, the course of Lesya Khomenko in 2017. At the beginning of her artistic practice, she favoured traditional painting. Since 2016, she has moved away from academicism to explore possibilities provided by painting. In 2018, she founded the artist-run space “Noch” in her studio. Took part in the fourth art residence programme SWAP: UK/Ukraine 2019. Took part in such projects as “Other people live here”, The Naked Room, Kyiv (2019), “A few unnecessary steps to the other side”, Artsvit, Dnipro, Ukraine (2019), the “Countryside practices: seasonal closeness” special project as part of the fifth Odesa Biennale of Contemporary Art, Odesa, Ukraine (2017).
The central subject of Alexandra Kadzevich’s practice is painting. After completing classic art education, she consistently employs painting techniques and tests various materials to explore this medium. In 2017, in her workshop in Odesa, Kadzevich founded the artist-run space NOCH, which promoted the development of the art environment. Changes in the private space of her workshop have affected the artist’s practice and inspired her to reconceptualize the relations between a work of art, space and architecture — her thinking transformed in the direction of spatially-oriented painting, where the materiality of an object has become crucial, while painting itself has developed ephemerality which is characteristic of an intuitive touch.
Alexandra Kadzevich. The Way from Eye to Eye
Oksana Kazmina
Born in the town of Yakovlevo, Russia in 1984. Lives and works in Kyiv. Uses such media as performance, installation and video in her artistic practice. Studied journalism at the Ivan Franko National University in Lviv and direction in the Karpenko-Karyy National Theatre, Cinema and Television University in Kyiv. As a film director and artist, she preaches intersectional feminism and posthumanism, researches the existing authorities and the ways corporeal practices can undermine them. Co-founded the OKSANAS art collective and the Bodily Practices project. Received an award for the best short film (“The Secret, the Girl and the Boy”) at the Odesa International Film Festival in 2019. Taught film direction at Wesleyan University, the USA. Took part in many national and international projects: Mykola Ridnyy’s “Armed and Dangerous”, the “Countryside practices: seasonal closeness” special project as part of the fifth Odesa Biennale of Contemporary Art, Odesa, Ukraine (2017), the Kyiv School modern art biennale, Kyiv/Vienna (2015), Berlinale Talents as part of the Berlin International Film Festival, Berlin (2014).
Oksana Kazmina’s work touches on the topic of mundanity of violence. The story in the video work takes place in a second hand store — a place where things are redistributed. As they choose clothes, the female protagonists of the video talk with each other. Their conversations consist of retelling their dreams, fragments from children’s folklore, social media posts and chats, book quotes and other things. By articulating real and imaginary stories about identity, morality and corporality, the protagonists expose the mundanity of violence, which each of them has experienced or has been experiencing.
Oksana Kazmina The Intermutation. Neither a Fairytale Nor a Musical. 2020
The First Special Prize Winner
Nikolay Karabinovych
Born in Odesa in 1988. Lives and works in Ghent, Belgium and Kyiv. Uses such media as video, sound, text, installation and performance in his artistic practice. Graduated from the Mechnykov National University in Odesa, the Department of Philosophy. Since 2019 he has studied at the Higher Institute for Fine Arts in Ghent. In 2017, he was an assistant curator at the fifth Odesa Biennale. Winner of the first special PinchukArtCentre Prize 2018. Took part in many national and international projects, including “From sea to sea”, Hit Gallery, Bratislava (2019), “The spring (summer, autumn, winter) of nations”, BWA, Tarnow, Poland (2019) “Ain’t nobody’s business”, PinchukArtСentre, Kyiv (2018), “Human fate”, the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre, Moscow (2018), PinchukArtCentre Prize 2015, Kyiv.
In his practice, Nikolay Karabinovych often addresses the roots of his multicultural family, overlaying his experience of working with collective memory on personal history. The point of departure for the author’s story in this work is music. The tune played by the music box in the corner of the room is over a hundred years old. Nobody knows its original author. Both Greeks and Jews have their own songs based on this tune. But they are entirely different in their meaning: the Greek one is about love for a beautiful girl, and the Jewish one is about sending a young man to war. Played by the box mechanism, the tune is deprived of anything human which is capable of hate, hypocrisy, violence, and because of this it has a chance to be uniting. We can imagine all these people— Jews, Greeks and everyone else who knows this tune —come together and recognize this tune, maybe wanting to sing it together. But where could that happen— on a deserted shore of a drying liman or any other place where the universal poetry of art comes into power?
Nikolay Karabinovich. Even Further. 2020
Anton Karyuk
Born in Dnipro in 1988. Works and lives in Kyiv and Vilnius. Uses painting, video, installation and performance in his artistic practice. Studied architecture at the Prydniprovska State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture. Some of his selected personal and group projects include “Pre-education”, Dresden, Germany (2019), “Identifying”, Leoparden, Uppsala, Sweden (2019), “Sünden unter freiem Himmel – Deutsche Ausgabe”, Rasch, Kassel, Germany (2019), “Forbidden family”, Kedi, Izmir, Turkey (2017), “Flaws in the open air”, Porto Franko modern art festival, Step art group, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine (2017).
The minimalist installation by Anton Karyuk is dedicated to the topic of safety of LGBTQ+ community members in the public space. After each pride, its participants, afraid of violent incidents, try to leave the city center by jumping into a subway car. In these situations, the presence or absence of a subway token in your pocket determines how quickly you’ll be able to leave the dangerous place. The subway token in cast silver embodies the preciousness of personal safety and opposes the violence and hatred against the LGBTQ+ community. As an analogy to the gradually changing and modernizing system of payment in the Kyiv Metro System, the artist speaks about changes in the society, which must find new means of communication, alternative to the language of violence.
Anton Karyuk. Value. 2020
Iryna Kudrya
Lives and works in Kyiv where she was born in 1986. Uses such media as video and installation in her artistic practice. Graduated from the State Academy of Statistics, Accounting and Audit. Studied modern art at the Visual Communication School (the course of Kateryna Badyanova and Lada Nakonechna) in 2014-2015. Graduated from the School of Engaged Art, St Petersburg, Russia in 2017. Took part in the Collective of Specific Dates since its establishment in 2014 until its dissolution in 2017. Attended a series of performative practice workshops, Tanzlaboratorium Research Group, in 2014-2017. Took part in many exhibition and research projects, including “How to be cool”, PinchukArtCentre (2019); “A distaff, a sabre and a deer”, the Stanytsya Luganska local history museum, Ukraine (2018); “Work more! Rest more!”, Minsk (2017).
The author appears before the audience in two roles: as a host and as a guest of a TV show in a popular format, similar to Women’s Stories, on an imaginary TV channel ART Planet Kyiv. Acting out the image of an actress, Kudrya speaks about the roles of a feminist and activist, an Orthodox Christian, a downshifting janitor, an office worker. The role of the host, Kira Terentyeva, also played by the artist, refers to the image of a sensitive interlocutor who is essential to the genre format. The video performance, which resembles a TV show in its format and aesthetics, becomes a chance for the author to live her unrealized dream and to be an accomplished actress. In Kudrya, the audience sees two protagonists whose voices speak ironically about the story of their own “success.”
Iryna Kudrya. Women’s stories with Kira Terentyeva. 2020
Larion Lozovoy
Born in 1987, lives and works in Kyiv. An artist and independent researcher interested in the economic history of Central and Eastern Europe and in the ideology of creativity. Studied modern art at the Visual Communication School (Kyiv), the V-A-C Curatorial School (Moscow) and WHW Akademija (Zagreb). An author of critique and art reviews published in Korydor, Prostory and Krytyka Polityczna. Nominated for PinchukArtCentre Prize 2018 and Visible Award. His recent projects include “Sleeping off a Century of Hope”, Viafarini, Milan, Italy (2019), “Open Studio/Open Nova”, Studio Maljković, Zagreb (2019), “MIDTERM”, Galerija Nova, Zagreb (2019), “Living Monuments”, Neurotitan / HausSchwarzenberg, Berlin (2018).
The art practice of Larion Lozovoy primarily focuses on economic history, its connections with art and the dynamics of cultural and industrial modernization. The topic of his new work is the phenomenon of friendly societies — workers organizations that became widespread in Europe in the 18th century. The difficult labor conditions, typical of the early industrial period, encouraged workers to create a system of protection from professional risks, which factory owners refused to provide to them. When they turned into centers of freethinking and class conscience, the societies were quickly banned.
In his work, the artist tells the story of the semi-mythical Amalgamated Society of Free Co-Creators, which emerged at the dawn of the new economic order, when industrial power was rapidly fading away, giving the way to the knowledge economy. Factory rooms and workshops, emptied as a result of these changes, became centers for free creators and entrepreneurs. By telling the story of this Society, Larion Lozovoy emphasizes the “cultural renewal” of outdated systems where artists and organizers of creative processes become harbingers of future changes.
Larion Lozovoy. Amalgamated Society of Free Co-Creators. 2020
Timothy Maxymenko
Born in Kyiv in 1995. Lives and works in Kyiv and London. Graduated from the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Poland. Studied at University of Wolverhampton, the UK and the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. Uses such media as sound, video and performance. Took part in London Art Night (2018), Burning Man (2019), “US2”, Filet, London (2019), “The Sound Labyrinth”, Art Gallery of Contemporary Art Bunker, Krakow, Poland (2018).
Timothy Maxymenko’s work consists of musical improvisations in real time, which are going to take place in various locations in Kyiv while the exhibition is open. In collaboration with four Ukrainian electronic musicians, the artist will create a series of participatory audio performances. The sound improvisations will be based on the noises of fuse boxes, ventilation fans and sewerage pipes, which the musicians will use to create their compositions in real time.
With this work, the artist proposes to look at the city as a living organism, try to feel its tension and rhythms. It is important for Timothy Maxymenko to present the city as a space for interactions which brings together various music communities and the fixed environment of the PinchukArtCentre.
Performances can be attended upon registration on the second floor of the PinchukArtCentre.
Timothy Maxymenko. High Voltage. 2020
Elias Parvulesco
Born in Kyiv Region in 1985. Lives and works in Kyiv. Studied engineering and film studies. Studied modern art at the Visual Communication School (Kyiv). Worked as a journalist, editor and film researcher. Co-founded the art and cinema ruїns collective. Took part in Ukrainian and international projects, such as “Armed and Dangerous”, Izolyatsia, Kyiv, YermilovCentre, Kharkiv, Ukraine (2018), “Gray Cube”, Visual Culture Centre, Kyiv / Kharkiv Architecture School, Kharkiv, Ukraine / Bunker, Chisinau (2018), the Molodist festival (2018), “Social realism. Pretend to be different”, the National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv (2018), the Odesa International Film Festival, Odesa, Ukraine (2016).
In his work, Elias Parvulesco addresses the darkness as both an optical phenomenon and a metaphorical image. In the age of incessant climate change, darkness also turns out to be an imaginary boundary between capitalism and nature, between the expansive carbon-based economy and the “slow” existence of natural ecosystems.
In this work, an example of the existence of darkness are caves — geological formations that formed millions of years ago at the bottom of the global sea, at the junctures between tectonic plates. The majority of these natural formations are still in the state of unspeakable darkness today, they are inaccessible both to sunlight or artificial light and to human beings.
Elias Parvulesco «…The Winds Have Swept Us Off in All Directions…». 2020
Valentina Petrova
Born in 1984, she lives and works in Kyiv. Uses such media as performance, video, installation, body, embroidery, organic and other materials in her artistic practice. She studied art at the School of Engaged Art Chto Delat, St Petersburg in 2015 and modern art at the Visual Communication School (Kyiv) in 2014. Took part in such projects as WARSAW UNDER CONSTRUCTION 10, Wroclaw, Poland (2018); “A distaff, a sabre and a deer”, the Stanytsya Luganska local history museum, Ukraine (2018), the Kyiv Biennale, Ukraine (2017); “What do I have that a woman has?”, the Visual Culture Centre, Kyiv (2015).
The researcher and professor of the Eindhoven University of Technology will present a report based on her long-term research of the use of functional music in industry and agriculture in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet countries. What is functional music? Why was it an important part of various economic spheres, and what role did it play in the process of ideologization of labor? How did the context of the main historic periods affect the use of functional music? In an accessible form, using archival photo, audio and video materials, Valentina Petrova will speak about the way functional music became part of everyday life and how it transformed over time.
Valentina Petrova. Functional Music in the Industry and Agriculture of the USSR and Post-Soviet Countries. 2020
Alina Sokolova
Born in Uzhgorod in 1995. Lives and works in Vienna and Uzhgorod. Uses such media as art, photography, video and performance. Studied at the Uzhgorod art college, the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. In 2015, she started studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Prof Martin Guttmann’s class of art and photography. Her selected personal and group projects include “Heracleumfall”, Michaela Stock, Vienna (2019), “Smugglers choreography/painterly trauma”, Semperdepot Lehargasse, Vienna (2018), “The monument of Danube” project in public space as part of the photography month, Belgrade (2018), “Trust me with your import”, “Sorry, no rooms available” art residence, Uzhgorod, Ukraine (2017).
Alina Sokolova’s project is dedicated to various types of invisible labor and choreography of everyday gestures. The multi-figure painting composition and the series of video-performances raise the question of the labor of artists working in jobs they are not trained for. However, to avoid losing their skills, they return to their craft every time. Sokolova draws attention to the fact that this switch can be trained to become automatic, and the bodily habits acquired by an artist in doing routine tasks are transferred into doing art.
Alina Sokolova. The Choreography of Labor. 2019
Dmytro Starusev
Born in Makiyivka in 1984, lives and works in Moscow. Uses photography and installation in his artistic practice. Studied at the Russian State University of Cinematography (2012) and the Rodchenko School of Photography and Multimedia (Moscow) under Sergey Bratkov’s guidance. Took part in such personal and joint projects as “Heart line time zone”, RuArts, Moscow (2019), “Faith in deep crisis”, Victoria Gallery, Samara, Russia (2019); “The light of hellish bloom”, ArtSvit, Dnipro, Ukraine (2019), Academiae Biennial, Fortezza, Italy (2018), PinchukArtCentre Prize 2018, Kyiv, “Test group “, Ekaterina Foundation, Moscow (2018); XII Krasnoyarsk Museum Biennale, Krasnoyarsk, Russia (2017), “Versus” PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv (2017), “Field of view” parallel programme of the Moscow International Biennale for Young Art (2016), “Folklore expedition, Donbas”, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art photo biennale, Moscow (2016).
In this installation, Dmytro Starusev reveals the sensitivity and problems shared by all of humanity but invisible to the human eye. He problematizes the human capacity to put up with the disasters and horrors of history, such as collective deportations, mass murders, atomic bombings. The artist here acts as a supporter of apocalyptic sentiments, where tragic inevitability is presented as a black undifferentiated world. He claims that there is no authorship anymore, there is energy. There is no identity, there is the Planet. There is no truth, there is life. In his opinion, the time is coming for expression free of life itself, as a nonlinear and chaotic dimension.
The presented elements of the installation reproduce the sacred space which was lost in the time when all the heresies and post-truth won, when multiple versions of interpreting reality became possible.
Dmytro Starusiev. Once we returned to the caves. 2020
Anna Scherbyna
Born in Zaporizhzhya in 1988, she has lived and worked in Kyiv since 2009. Uses such media as painting, sketches, installations and video in her artistic practice. Graduated from the Odesa Art College and the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture in Kyiv. Studied modern art at the Visual Communication School in Kyiv (the course was developed by Kateryna Badyanova and Lada Nakonechna, 2013-2014) and in the summer school of the School of Engaged Art Chto Delat (Berlin, 2014). Co-founded the Collective of Specific Dates (2015-2017) and the YOD group (2013-2015). Took part in such projects as “The cave of a golden rose”, Closer Art Centre, Kyiv (2019), “One’s own space”, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv (2018), “A distaff, a sabre and a deer”, the Stanytsya Luganska local history museum, Ukraine (2018), “Ukraine on fire”, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv (together with the Collective of Specific Dates) (2017); “Social realism. Pretend to be different”, the National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv (2017).
In her work titled Disposition of the Power Gaze Using the Example of Wartime Landscape, Anna Scherbyna touches upon the topic of an ideological landscape. Scherbyna gives such a form to her artwork that it is impossible to capture it in full with one gaze. Thus, the artist reconceptualizes the military museum diorama, presenting it as an inverse ideological landscape. However, instead of usual heroic military landscape, the author reproduces the flip side, deprived of any war pathos — a black-and-white landscape of a typical town in the so-called “gray zone.” As a matter of principle, the artist has created a composite image from various villages and towns in Luhansk Region — Krymske, Trokhizbenka, Zolote, Stanytsia Luhanska and others — which she visited in 2016–2019 as a member of the human rights monitoring mission of the Vostok SOS organization and as a participant of the decentralized art initiative The Museum Is Open for Renovation. Scherbyna’s wall painting aesthetically refers to the social landscape of the wanderers: late fall, naked trees, gray sky, a mud road and an old house where human life is probably still languishing. And only the boom-gated checkpoint distinguishes this landscape from the views of many other villages across Ukraine, marking this place as special one.
Anna Scherbyna. Disposition of the Power Gaze Using the Example of Wartime Landscape. 2020
Studio 12345678910
A group of artists and architects from Dnipro. At present, some members of the group live in Kyiv. The studio was established in 2016 and currently includes Yevhen Obraztsov (born 1993), Anastasiya Omelych (born 1996) and Mykyta Momot (born 1995). They use critical design techniques to research urban archaeology, using such media as photos, installations and graphics. Some of their selected exhibitions are “How to be cool”, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv (2019), “The house that became the ground”, Room, Artsvit, Dnipro, Ukraine (2018), “Capture. Situation”, Vozdvizhenka 32, Kyiv (2016).
In their practice, the artists and the architects, the members of Studio 12345678910, consistently work with spontaneous forms characteristic of the urban landscapes of contemporary Ukraine. This time, they focused their attention on concrete blocks, rocks and other similar makeshift structures that the residents of Ukrainian cities use to block vehicles from driving through the yards of residential buildings and through green areas. The field research that served as a basis for this artwork was conducted in Dnipro city. It resulted in a photo archive. The authors recorded traces of conflicts resolved using brute force — by installing a concrete blocks. An object of this kind changes the existing situation and deprives a road of its function. Conceptualizing this phenomenon in an architectural form, they add ten other blocks to the existing block to form stairs. This gesture symbolically turns the situation around once again and partially returns its function to the road — it becomes accessible to people and some types of vehicles. The illustrations in the lithography technique depict the stages of transformation of space.
Studio 12345678910. A concrete block is heavier than a person. 2019–2020
The Main Prize Winner
Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Himey
Yarema Malashchuk (born in 1993) and Roman Himey (born in 1992), originally from Kolomyya, Ivano-Frankivsk Region, live and work in Kyiv. Both studied at the Karpenko-Karyy National University in Kyiv. They work predominantly with video as artists, directors and cinematographers. Winners of the second special PinchukArtCentre Prize 2018. Collaborated with the Dutch artist group Metahaven on the film “Hometown” and with director Filip Sotnychenko (“Nail”, “Technical Break”). Winners of the main award MUHi 2019. Some of their selected exhibitions include MUHi 2019, the Taras Shevchenko National Museum, Kyiv (2019), “Dance of Urgency”, Q21, Vienna (2019), PinchukArtCentre Prize 2018, Kyiv, “Blue-blue sky”, Bursa gallery, Kyiv (2019).
Live Broadcast, the video work by Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Himey, which is thought to have been documentary footage, refers to the topic of constructing reality and actualizes the question of the meaning of an image in the contemporary visual age.
According to the story, men dressed in military uniform, which resembles the Red Army clothes, perform a dance after a long preparation. The group’s choreography is disrupted by random people who cross the corridor past the dancers. Focusing on people’s reactions to the dance of the Red Army soldiers, the artists emphasize that the image has been separated from the content today. For instance, people react to the dance of the Red Army soldiers in the same way as if it was a dance of prehistoric tribal conquerors. The corridor chosen for filming starts to resemble a zone where transgression happens, where history encounters the present, reality encounters fiction, and image encounters matter. In this transitory situation, the artists ask, how do we assess the quality, meaning and functions of a moving picture today? What is left of reality in it?
Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Himey. Live stream. 2020
The Public Choice Prize
Daniil Revkovskiy and Andriy Rachinskiy
Kharkiv artists born in 1993 and 1990 respectively. Live and work in Kharkiv. Use such media as video and installation. Graduated from the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Art. In 2010, they created a VKontakte public community called “Memory” which they used to jointly explore the subject of collective memory in the post-Soviet space. Their joint work began in 2012. Took part in many projects and exhibitions, including “The war of inscriptions”, OFF/FORMAT, Brno, Czech Republic (2019), “Soot”, EFTI, Madrid, Spain (2019), the Second National Biennale of Young Art, Kharkiv, Ukraine (2019), PinchukArtCentre Prize 2018, Kyiv.
In this work, the artists Daniil Revkovskiy and Andriy Rachinskiy explore the cruelest manifestations of sociocultural processes in the recent history of Ukraine. The artists speak about the gangs of so-called “runners” and unprecedentedly bloody street wars involving teenagers that took place in Kryvyi Rih in 1980s–1990s. Using the technique of fake historical reconstruction, the artists transfer the events and their characters to Zaporizhzhia. In the first part of the total installation, Rachinskiy and Revkovskiy reproduce the headquarters of one of the gangs, filling it with iconic objects and trophies taken from their opponents in confrontations. The second part reproduces an equally heroic parallel reality: it presents a police information board dedicated to the investigation into the underage criminals.
Daniil Revkovskiy and Andriy Rachinskiy. Mischievous. 2019–2020
Vernissage
