Winners of Ukrainian art quiz head for World Art Olympiad

Nineteen winners of the quiz “Art Summer in Venice with the PinchukArtCentre” will travel to Venice compete in the World Art Olympiad. From Aug. 16 to 19 they will explore the 52nd Venice Biennale together with a professional guide at the Arsenal and the national pavilions at Giardini. They will also visit the Ukrainian pavilion, organized this year by the PinchukArtCentre. Art director Claire Staebler says, “...we are not only striving to form a professional community and modernize Ukraine’s artistic space. No less important is the task to attract broader circles of the population to the orbit of contemporary art. This art quiz is a new form of this work; art institutions in the West have not carried out similar programs.”

Staebler says that the 52nd Venice Biennale is now a special cultural event for Ukraine: “For the first time the Ukrainian pavilion has been listed as one of the three top events at the Venice Biennale. I believe it is important for people to feel involved with their country’s achievements. These people will be able to see everything on display and then explore other exhibits; afterwards they will have a different view of things that are part of their daily routines; they will be able to assess their place in the context of world culture.”

The 19 winners of the art quiz come from all over Ukraine: Mykyta Khudiakov (Mykolaiv), Dmytro Zaporozhets (Kharkiv), Oksana Asaulenko (Cherkasy), Stefania Horbkova (Lviv), and Mariana Horbach (Khmelnytsky). Kyiv is represented by Maryna Boiko, Natalia Dmytruk, Maksym Moskalenko, Kateryna Shemchuk, Hanna Mikhova, Iryna Chalian, Ellina Sapozhkova, Artur Diniielian, Halyna Udovenko, Tetiana Penkovska, Volodymyr Kyryliuk, Tetiana Udovenko, Lilia Ladvyshchenko, and Liudmyla Marchenko.

The project, organized by PinchukArtCentre in conjunction with the media, lasted from June 13 until June 26. The contestants had to demonstrate knowledge of the PinchukArtCentre’s exhibit history, and the works and interesting facts from the biographies of the artists involved in the 52nd Venice Biennale.

The Ukrainian pavilion’s exhibit “Poem of the Inland Sea” displays works by eight artists from Ukraine, Germany, and the US, including Serhii Bratkov, Oleksandr Hnylytsky, Lesia Zaiets, Borys Mykhailiv, Jurgen Teller, Mark Titchner, Sam Taylor-Wood and Dzine.

The 52nd Venice Biennale will end on Nov. 21. The winning country will be named on the final day of the exhibit.

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The PinchukArtCentre of Contemporary Art is a cultural project of the Viktor Pinchuk Foundation. One of its key objectives is to modernize Ukraine’s cultural sphere. The center is implementing an ambitious program of international exhibits featuring Ukrainian and foreign artists. Since its inception (September 2006), over 130,000 people have visited the art center.