The best of times, the worst of times

The biennale began with a witty performance by R.E.P., right on the sidewalk opposite the entrance to the Mystetsky Arsenal. A folk band, clad in embroidered shirts, were playing traditional folk tunes, which served as an accompaniment to the very prosaic saga of all manner of bans and scandals plaguing today’s art. This left a few passers-by (apparently Orthodox Christians) shocked. The evening was closed with a musical by the Kyiv composer Alla Zahaikevych and film director Oles Sanin, performed in the open, at the Scythian stelae park (project “Ancient Forms, Actual View”). Folk dancers in gray dresses sang and danced among the ancient statues to the avant-garde sounds of the synthesizer, percussions, and fiddle. Squeezed between these two performances were a press conference (held to the pealing of the nearby Kyiv Pechersk Lavra bells, so it itself turned into a performance), an inrush of high-ranking officials with their retinues, the formal opening, and the first impressions of the exhibit, albeit still raw and unfinished in some places.

The event does not rank as overly pompous. After all, the chief curator, David Elliott (UK), complained that the masterminds had been working in emergency mode The Day before, due to power cutoffs and other nuisances. However, organizational mistakes and imperfect logistics cannot debase this large-scale event. As promised, exhibited are 250 paintings by 100 artists from various countries from Japan and Vietnam to New Zealand to the US. A total of 40 pieces were made especially for the biennale. A half of the second floor is taken up by “Double Game” (a project prepared with the assistance of the prestigious Zamek Ujazdowski Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw). It is a joint display of Polish and Ukrainian painters.

Everything starts in the Arsenal’s courtyard with a sort of 3-D headpiece: a 10-meter high kitsch installation in the form of an inflatable golden lotus flower by the Korean designer and painter Choi Jeong Hwa, busily lifting and dropping its petals in the middle of a round pool. Overall, the passage through long suites of rooms, some of which house pretty bizarre installations, turns into a true adventure.

However, the Arsenal is but the tip of the iceberg. The biennale’s parallel program includes culture and art events, which will be held by Ukrainian artists and curators at various sites in Kyiv, as well as in Kherson, Kharkiv, Odesa, and Dnipropetrovsk. The debate platform “Art after the End of the World” (curator Yekaterina Dyogot) will take care of the theoretical aspect; there is enough room for an educational program for various target audiences, from professional artists to children.

Arsenale-2012 will last till July 30, 2012. The main project’s theme is “The Best of Times, the Worst of Times: Rebirth and Apocalypse in Contemporary Art.” This project consists of four parts: “The Restless Spirit,” “In the Name of Order,” “Flesh,” and “The Unquiet Dream.”

David ELLIOTT, curator of ARSENALE 2012, Great Britain:

“Natalia Zabolotna, commissioner of Arsenale 2012, has already defined what we are doing. This biennale differs from all others. This is the first biennale in Kyiv, it is incredibly ambitious, and it will go exactly the way we have predicted. The gods of this show are here. You will see a lot: installations, paintings, videos, and sculptures. You will walk down the hall of incredible artifacts and striking new images. This is a festival of present-day art. Almost everything you are going to see was created over the past couple of years or so. The main message of modernity is that we are unable to understand the present if we do not have at least a gleam of understanding of the past. I guess thinking about the future is one of art’s most important functions. However, the past must be used as a platform rather than prison. I hope that after seeing the exhibit, you will be enriched not only with joy and certain experiences, but also with this awareness.”

Alla ZAHAIKEVYCH, composer, author of the opening performance, Kyiv:

“I loved the opening atmosphere, it reminded me of similar events in Europe and elsewhere worldwide. The public represented all walks of life. For one, I bumped into my students; then there were representatives of artistic and political elites. As for the biennale proper, I particularly liked the masterminds’ conceptually theoretical approach, the scale of their position, which involved not only representation, but also reflection, a scholarly interpretation of what is going on at Arsenale and in present-day art in general. We held our performance in memoriam of Borys Voznytsky. Although the music had not been meant for this tragic event, it turned out that it was most appropriate.”

Check out the next issues of The Day for a detailed review of Arsenale 2012.