Research platform: Fedir Tetyanych. Canon Fripulia
The exhibition “Fedir Tetyanych. Canon Fripulia” is focused on one of the sides of the multifaceted creative work of artist Fedir Tetyanych whose artistic practice encompassed painting, drawing, sculpture, text, performance etc.
Being part of the Union of Artists, Tetyanych was involved in carrying out official orders for monumental order, but at the same time, his personality, behaviour and artistic practice were an alternative to the official Soviet culture. Tetyanych was among the pioneers of the performance genre in the Ukrainian art: he is mostly famous for his odd-looking costumes and objects of trash and found materials. The artist used oftentimes foil or cans or other materials for his costumes that produced a certain sound when in motion. He put those costumes on in public spaces, including the premises of the Union of Artists, which gave him the reputation of a town freak who was proclaiming his own “eternity” and “infinity”: “I am Boundlessness”. These are the categories of eternity, infinity, and boundlessness served as the base for his philosophical and artistic doctrine: Fripulia.
In contrast to the “trash aesthetics”, the exhibition “Fedir Tetyanych. Canon Fripulia” makes an attempt to conceptualise the artist’s practice by reflecting on his texts and presenting them as a self-sufficient medium and an integral part of his artistic oeuvre. Another element to Fedir Tetyanych’s universe – which is no less important – is the Biotechnosphere: an all-purpose module to accommodate and mobilize a human. Its genesis should be sought for in utopian visions of Leonardo da Vinci, Nikolay Fedorov or Vladimir Tatlin: what differs Tetyanych from his predecessors is mostly introduction of number attributes to his philosophic system that are typical for the era of cybernetics and achievements in space. In 1980s and 1990s, the artist built about five Biotechnospheres; none of them has been preserved. By implementing a reconstruction of two of them, based on drawings (one at scale 1 to 3 and the other life size), the curators sought to create perfect, almost serial production samples their author could be only dreaming of.
Invited curator: Valeriy Sakharuk
Co-curator: Tatiana Kochubinska
The works by Fedir Tetyanych exhibited at the show span the period from the late 1960s through the early 2000s. Captions deliberately omit dates, since the artist continuously improved, reworked and updated his works with new elements over the years. Processuality and the potential for endless movement—as opposed to matter-of-fact fixation—constitute the essence of Tetyanych’s artistic practice.
This room features objects and fragments of installations previously located at Fedir Tetyanych’s studio at 8 Perspektyvna Street, as well as photographs of the studio’s interior by Iurii Zmorovych.
