Ukraine Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale
1. Ukraine: background Information
Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe and geographically located between the Eastern countries of the European Union and Russia. Since its political independence from Russia, with the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, the recent history of Ukraine is marked by its effort to establish a more independent position from Russia. The country’s economy is mainly agricultural and has heavy industry in the East. Important trade treaties are made with Russia, Ukraine’s main supplier for gas, creating both political and economic dependency. The country faced an economic crisis in 2008 and still receives financial support from the International Monetary Fund.
Within the last decade, Ukraine has tried to define its own position as an independent nation, but found itself torn between the EU and political pressure from Russia. In November 2013, sitting president Victor Yanukovych suspended preparations for an association agreement with the EU. His decision was followed by protests and demonstrations of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians at the Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the capital’s independent square in Kiev. Accusing the government to bowing under Russian pressure, the protests became infamously known as the “Euromaidan protests.”It reached its peak when 77 protesters were killed by government forces in February 2014. Following these events, the current president fled the country and an interim government was established. Even today, Russia refuses to recognize the takeover.
Only one month after the demonstrations, in March 2014, pro-Russian forces seized and annexed Crimea, the peninsula in Ukraine’s Southwest close to the Russian boarder. The annexation caused the biggest East-West showdown since the Cold War and yet is internationally unrecognized. Around the same time, pro-Russian separatist forces also tried to seize the Donetsk and Luhansk oblast (province) in the West of Ukraine, located next to the Russian boarder. In December 2015, Russia confirmed that the pro-Russian forces were supported by covered Russian soldiers. Even today, government forces are currently in the midst of fighting against pro-Russian separatists in these regions and although several ceasefire agreements were negotiated, the agreements were violated and the conflict continues.
2. Description of artwork
At the 56th Venice Biennale, Ukraine was presented with a temporary glass pavilion at the Riva dei Sette Martini, a popular site located close to the Biennale’s Giardini and Arsenale. Entitled: “Hope!”, the pavilion’s exhibition draws on the current political and social context of their country; referring to the inner tensions and its unpredictable, but hopefully better future. Through a variety of different media and material, such as sculpture, collage, photography and performance/video, seven artists and one artist collective bring in different perspectives on the country’s current situation. The show was curated by the Belgian Björn Geldhof, who is the Deputy Artistic Director of the PinchukArtCentre, one of the most influential and important centers for contemporary art in Ukraine and located in Kiev.
One of the art works displayed was presented by the artist collective Open Group. With “Synonym for ‘wait’,”the group combined performance and a live-stream video installation at the pavilion. On a freestanding wall, nine screens displayed live video footage of the front doors of homes of Ukrainian soldiers who were recently drafted to fight in the conflict with the pro-Russian soldiers. Each of the family homes are located throughout different regions of Ukraine. On the other side of the wall, nine framed photographs showed each family’s dinner table. As an important meeting place for a family, the table refers to the void the soldiers leave within their families while they are away at war. In front of the screen wall, one Open Group member is sitting in a chair at a table, watching the screens and waiting for one of the soldiers to return home. During their wait, they refused to eat - drawing attention to the situation of the soldiers, who were unable to eat at their own dinner table, because they were at war. Through this combined performance and installation, the work focuses on the private impact of a state conflict to families that can last for weeks, months and even years. Due to their presence and conscious waiting, the members of Open Group set their waiting in a referential time frame, embodying the time and endurance that is demanded from both the soldiers and their families until they see each other again.
3.Pavilion’s success
The Ukrainian presentation at the 56th Venice Biennale reflected the current social and political instabilities within the country. The exhibition’s title “Hope!”reflects the curatorial concept of the pavilion; presenting different perspectives from Ukrainian artists on the ‘current state of things’in their own country. Referring to the curator Björn Geldhof, the pavilion’s transparent architecture allows a gaze inside the country, where the country’s reality gets reflected and presented to an international audience at the same time. In addition, the transparency of the glass allows one to envision a better future for the country. “Hope!”directly addresses the viewer, who connects the art work and Ukraine’s reality with the idea and hope that there will be a better but yet unknown future. The transparency also alludes to the openness of the country which reaches out to the world, trying to create an image of the country which is better detached from its historical past and its dependency on Russia towards a more open and independent voice within the global (art) scene.
Besides the reference to the current political conflicts and war in the country, the art works draw on the role and representation of the conflict through the media.
“Crowd.Day”by Zhanna Kadyrova for example, not only uses cut outs from different newspapers from all over the world, but she only uses the newspapers that were published one year after Russia annexed the peninsula Crimea in a self-determined referendum.
The aesthetic of war, in particular devastating explosions, is shown in the painting “Spectacle - 1”by Artem Volokitin. The curatorial statement to his work draws the connection to the war in media presentations; how we perceive war from a distance through a TV screen. What picture of the reality gets transmitted through the media to the people all over the world; and how much information is needed to give a full picture of the reality? Is that even possible? These are some of the many questions the work “Blind Spot”by Mykola Ridnyi and Serhiy Zhadan asks us.
To conclude the presentation of the Ukrainian pavilion at the 56th Biennale, “Hope!”is a very rich and complex exhibition that represents Ukraine’s contemporary art scene in an international setting. This opens another aspect of the exhibition, in addition to a very thoughtful reflection of how the artist’s deal with the ongoing, massive conflicts in their country.
4. Artists at the pavilion
All of the presented art works were made by artists who were almost all born in the 1980s. The fact that they represent the same generation leaves the impression that it is based on a curatorial decision; however, there is no further information to be found. The young age of the artists can be connected to the exhibition titled with “Hope!”, as it refers to the country’s hope for a better future. The artists are yet to have a relatively young work experience and therefore maybe more responsive to the political changes that happened after the end of the Soviet Union, in contrast to earlier generation artists, who might also be influenced by their experiences during the Soviet Union. In addition, the young artists have a long work career lying ahead of them, where they continue to be voices that represent Ukraine.
All seven artists and the members of the art collective Open Group are academically trained in art at Ukrainian universities. They are all recognized and well exhibited within the country and also seeking out to other countries, being involved in shows or artist-inresidence programs in other countries, for example Poland, Germany, France, United Kingdom. The group show at the pavilion, featuring that many artists, represents the country’s contemporary art scene on an international level, given at the Biennale. This is a valuable and well-intended step towards a better internationally recognition of contemporary Ukrainian art.
Featured artists at the pavilion: Yevgenia Belorusets, Nikita Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova, Open Group, Mykola Ridnyi, Artem Volokitin, Serhiy Zhadan, Anna Zvygagintseva.
For more detailed information about each artist, see the artists’s placemarks at the google earth presentation.