A dirge and a fountain that does not exist

Future Generation Art Prize, an award for artists up to 35 years old, was founded by Viktor Pinchuk Foundation and is issued every two years after a fall exhibition of nominees, who are previously chosen among applications submitted from all over the world.

This time 20 shortlist members represent 17 countries. They were selected from more than 5,500 online applications received from 148 countries. According to the regulations, Zhanna Kadyrova became the 21st nominee for the prize, since she won the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2013 for young Ukrainian artists.

This year, the Future Generation Art Prize shortlist includes following nominees: Neil Beloufa, 29 (France/Algeria), Rossella Biscotti, 35 (Italy), James Bridle, 33 (UK), Alison Vieira, 35 (US), Aslan Gaisumov, 23 (Russia), Ximena Garrido-Lecca, 34 (Peru), Mykyta Kadan, 31 (Ukraine), Zhanna Kadyrova, 32 (Ukraine), Pilar Quinteros, 26 (Chile), Mauricio Limon, 34 (Mexico), Adrian Melis, 28 (Cuba), Nastio Mosquito, 32 (Angola), Carlos Motta, 36 (Colombia), Jon Rafman, 32 (Canada), Cally Spooner, 31 (UK), He Xiangyu, 27 (China), Jia Aili, 34 (China), Kudzanai Chiurai, 33 (Zimbabwe), Cecile B. Evans, 31 (US/Belgium), art groups GCC (the Gulf countries), and Public Movement (Israel). Almost all artists have arrived in Kyiv.

Speaking of art groups, starting from November 15, Public Movement will show an open air performance Crossroads every Saturday at 3 p.m. It is dedicated to the recent events in Ukraine and will be moving from the Ukrainian House, the side of Triokhsviatytelska Street, to the foreign ministry building on Mykhailivska Square. Also, on November 15 Pilar Quinteros will     present performance Friendship of Nations Fountain. It will start at the PinchukArtCentre and carry on to Maidan, where the artist will bring cardboard details and reconstruct the historic fountain, which was removed from Maidan during the renovation in 2001. Besides, James Bridle created a “rainbow plane” in the courtyard of the Arena City Complex near the PinchukArtCentre.

As for the exhibition at the PinchukArtCentre, it traditionally consists of works featuring all main genres of contemporary art, from video art to installation, with a tendency towards figurative components.

Columbian Carlos Motta based his project on themes of stigmatization of the LGBT community by associating several different artifacts with it: a film about a Portuguese gay, who was persecuted back in the 17th century, shameless but funny drawings, a photo collage with quotes by outcasts, a model of a broken sailboat, and finally, street posters with data about the LGBT in Ukraine. Motta’s work primarily emphasizes the social mission of contemporary art.

GCC present a sort of a social project too: they recreate a certain average luxury module, thus creating a satirical expression about the cult of success, which dominates in their homeland. On the other hand, Jia Aili creates her own authentic museum with old artifacts – archive photos, children’s books, worn gas masks, pieces of coal – to present her own perspective of Chinese reality, in which the abovementioned pursuit of success is combined in the most ridiculous way with the Communist ideology, which did not disappear, and abject poverty.

Another Chinese participant, He Xiangyu, goes even further in his sarcasm. He   just displays Wisdom Teeth made of pure gold and The Tower of Wisdom, a jewelry installation made of gold and real teeth. The habit of embellishing oneself in the same way is familiar to Ukraine, and it is reduced to logical absurdity here.

WISDOM TEETH, 2013-14, MR. WANG-BING

Paradoxically enough, two absolutely different artists from different countries have a common image of a wall. Neil Beloufa (France/Algeria) staged a likeness of an international debate, the participants of which gradually arrive at the necessity of waging war against each other, and in the meantime a video of arguments is projected on a fake wall, which constantly moves back and forth, because of which the image is continuously shifting. And Aslan Gaisumov from Chechnya used a simple approach: he found an archive Soviet documentary about Grozny in 1978 and then, using the same structure of an introduction to a tourist guide, he filmed present-day Grozny: large-scale window dressing, created by Kadyrov in Putin’s glory, and organized the screening of this film on the wall of a demo-lished House of Culture, filmed the screening itself and used the sentimental and pathetic soundtrack from the 1978 film. The result is a subtle mockery, balancing on the verge of glorification of the regime’s achievements, yet allowing a double interpretation: on the one hand, without acquaintance with the preface and author’s explanations, the alternation of frames capturing the prospering Grozny and the shattered wall completely fits into a simple and quite loyal dichotomy of “before and after.” And on the other, the demolished wall could be interpreted as a trauma hidden behind the facade of faked well-being. At least, the Prosthesis exhibited in the same room demonstrates Gaisumov’s stand more accurately: a torn, slashed into several pieces book, sewn together with crude stitches, it requires no words to understand.

The ambiguity of meaning is characteristic of a project by Adrian Melis from Cuba, who lives in Spain. He made audio recordings of labor protests in Spain from 2010 to 2014, and in his installation this recording (an 8-hour-long compilation) is transformed into a set of electric impulses which turn on bubble blowing machines installed in the hall. The peak of the protest results is a constant stream of bubbles. On the one hand, it is a rather left-wing sentiment, and on the other, a mocking transformation of a labor protest into bubbles, which indirectly points at the Communist ideology dominant in Cuba.

Mykyta Kadan has designed a rather uncomfortable space: a room with broken converging walls, smashed furniture, and a stuffed deer in the corner. Whatever meaning the author put into it in the beginning, but allusions to Mezhyhiria, the war, and other burning issues are very obvious.

There are a lot of exercises in shape here as well. Alison Vieira (US) built a labyrinth out of metal stands. Cecile B. Evans came up with something resembling a digital reincarnation of recently deceased Hollywood star Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ximena Garrido-Lecca combined the traditional ceramics of her country with gas pipes. Everything is more or less attractive, but it does not go any further than that.

The project by Kudzanai Chiurai seems to be the most interesting in terms of form and content. His application is a short video of a wailer who sings a dirge over the body of a deceased woman. This is undoubtedly a mature work in terms of style, rhythm, and internal integrity, a modern Pieta which deserves an award.

In two months a respected international jury will select and announce the winner of the Future Generation Art Prize, who will receive a money prize of 100,000 dollars (60,000 in cash and 40,000 as a grant for creating new works) at the award ceremony on December 6 in Kyiv. Besides, 20,000 dollars will additionally be allocated for training programs for the Special Prize laureate.