From Gagarin to Tetianych
Art Arsenal opens International Week of Contemporary Art “Space Odyssey 2011”
This project is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the first human flight into space, which will be celebrated on April 12. The program comprises exhibits of modern Ukrainian and foreign artists, displays of technical artifacts linked to space, screenings of films, art and pop-science lectures, as well as a kids program.
Among the 130 participants was famous Polish artist Pawel Althamer with his video Astronaut-2, previously shown at the famed “documenta” art exhibit in Kassel. The German band Rochus Aust/Re-Load Futura presented their visual performance, de-dicated to the 108-minute state of weightlessness Gagarin experienced during his first flight. It was also the first time that the Kyiv audience could see the photos of the prominent Spanish artist Alicia Framis The Lost Astronaut, or the video installation of the British band Semiconductor called The Black Rain. One of the central works of the exhibition is Oleh Kulyk’s sculpture The Astronaut. Anatolii Sloika’s sculpture Mahatmaplan also got a lot of attention. Oleksii Sai constructed a 25-meter light installation tunnel called “Time to say goodbye!” It is accessible to any visitor.
Other works included the previously unknown drawings by Oleksandr Hnylytsky, the painting The Space Soup, photos, videos and paintings by Arsen Savadov, Serhii Bratkov, Oleksandr Roitburd, Illia Chichkan, Ihor Husiev, Serhii Zarva, Dmytro Dulfan, Kyrylo Protsenko, Illia Isupov, Zhanna Kadyrova, Nikita Kadan, Lada Nakonechna and other artists.
One of the project’s elements is a space cartography department, which has satellite photos of galaxies that had been officially provided by the American Space Agency NASA; photos taken in open space by the famous Russian astronaut Yury Lonchakov were exhibited in Kyiv for the first time. The display also comprises unique exhibits from space museums, obtained with the assistance of the Ukrainian National Space Agency. Aside numerous satellite and apparatus models and “space food,” the audience could see a tape recorded by Yuri Gagarin on his first flight, which recorded his famous words: “Let’s go!”
The screening of 50 films began in the cinema hall two days ago. The list includes a film about Gagarin, 108 minutes by Bata Nedych, and the biography film Fedir Tetianych Frypulia by Feofilaktov.
“Space Odyssey 2011” will finish with a concert by the electronic band AERONAUTICA, followed by a tour of The Space Flight with Illia Lagutenko’s participation. The pro-ject program’s leitmotif is the soundtrack to the first Soviet science-fiction film of the same name (1935).
As usual, the exhibit held in Mystetsky Arsenal is large: the grandiose pre-mises need to be filled. However, it seems that this time the quantity has harmed the quality. The exhibition is burdened with a lot of works that either aren’t related to the topic or bring nothing new to the table. The easily recognizable Kyiv postmodernists have painted the same once again, and often market canvases without any feeling of the topic. Sometimes, funny works can be found: the series of comic-like paintings about Gagarin presented as a Batman fighting world evil, the kobzar player wearing a spacesuit (The Ballad of Stanley Kubrick), or a couple of astronauts at work called The Catcher in the Rye (the astronauts are photographed and the rye is real). However, some of the participants have quite a questionable sense of humor, and what is worse, openly imitating methods, topic or style.
The organizers’ findings include things that are directly related to astronautics. The photos signed by Soviet astronauts, and the space equipment (even the “ancient” objects from the 1960s) are charming as artifacts of the past or just as parts of an exciting art installation. Technology is turned into art in The Black Rain, in which a solar wind is filmed as a metaphysical picture, full of evil energy. The corner dedicated to the above-mentioned Fripulia, the metropolitan outsider artist, is also interesting for its artifacts. Fripulia constructed his funny “starships” using the improvised materials found on Andriivsky uzviz, wore strange clothes, and his main philosophical concept was “eternity.”
The “Space Odyssey” is undoubtedly one of the most interesting pro-jects of the current season. The combination of the scientific and the artistic, the humanitarian and the technological, is absolutely new for Ukrai-nian organizers, which is why it’s hard to overestimate the work done in Mystetsky Arsenal. Let’s hope that similar events will be held in future.
