Transport for ideas
The Sixth Forum ART KYIV contemporary surprises Ukrainians with Japanese anime, aircraft engine and media history under lens
The exhibit-fair ART KYIV contemporary-2011 is underway in Mystetsky Arsenal. Thirty galleries of contemporary art, which according to the organizers, were selected among other candidates by a strict expert council headed by curator Oleksandr Soloviov, presented the works of famous and not so artists from Ukraine, Russia, France, Germany, and Japan. However, not all galleries whose format was not appropriate were refused. Soloviov agrees that there are still galleries at ART KYIV contemporary, which have hardly anything to do with the exhibit. He commented on the work of the expert jury: “We faced two problems: on the one hand, we had to choose really highly qualified works, on the other hand, we had to fill in the area of 50,000 square meters.”
Soloviov opines that the main treats of the sixth ART KYIV contemporary are three previously announced sensations: the Japanese platform, Polish project “Trip to East,” and the works by the French video artists Marie Reinert.
JAPAN, 1965
Indeed, the well-promoted Japanese platform represented by the Union 65 drew lively attention of the audience. Six Japanese artists united not only by the sphere of activity, but also the year of birth [1965. – Author] prepared a unique retrospective exhibit from the Land of the Rising Sun. The organizers of ART KYIV contemporary admitted that this exhibit was accepted really well at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Duesseldorf, Germany. The Japanese expositions comprised photo and video works, paintings, and installations which were absolutely different by style and manner of execution.
A large picture stands in the middle of the hall. At first sight it seems that huge eyes of bright heroes of Japanese anime are looking at you. But once you approach, everything becomes clear: what seems a big and bright cartoon scene from afar, at a close sight turns out to be pictures of crying children, cut veins, and scattered Japanese money.
“The 1960s-1970s were a very important period in Japan’s history. That time saw an impetus and the country became really modern. Everything the artists presented is really typical of the society, in which they were born and are living,” assistant director of the Japanese Foundation Miki Okabe explained to the journalists.
EASTERN EUROPE, THE 1990s
One more treat was the Polish project “Trip to East.” Polish artists, who involved in the exhibit artists from Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan, and Moldova, presented sort of “a dialogue of new Europe” in Kyiv.
Curators of this project tried to find an explanation for the phenomenon of love, seeking emotions, which would exceed the framework of sentimental relationships between people, something that could become an alternative to the state and capital and help in establishing new human relations. According to the artists, such is the phenomenon of love, presented by the participants of the project in various forms, expected (hugging jackets) and unexpected (a foot sticking out of a wall).
Old red Fiat, hiding the entire 1990s, was the most popular item of this platform. It seemed that the author placed in an old car everything Ukrainians brought for sale to neighboring Poland. “This is a kind of historical cross-section of one period of time. My friends and I remember that namely these cars were running between Lutsk and Poland, Poland and Ukraine,” the author of the project Volodymyr Kuznietsov says.
FRANCE, 2010
The conditional title of the forum’s breakthrough was given to the young video artist from France Marie Reinert who brought to Kyiv photos of Ukrainian sailors from Marfret ship in Marseille. Her project “Roll On, Roll Off” is a result of 1.5 years’ observations over the work of sailors in the port during unloading and loading of the ship. “That was an experiment, because people in a boat are unique. They live for a long time in a closed space, they see nothing around them. You have a feeling that there is only a man and the machine,” Marie commented on her work.
It was her idea to place in Mystetsky Arsenal a huge aircraft engine, which was brought to the gallery an hour before the launch. During the time left before the launch Reinert cut a short video chronicle about this engine’s trip from the Museum of Kyiv’s Polytechnic Institute [where the engine is exhibited. – Author] to 28 Ivan Mazepa Street. The French artist explained that the engine is a symbol of transportation of ideas and people in the today’s world.
According to the curator of this project, expert at the center of contemporary art Dallascontemporary (the US) Florence Ostende, jointly with Reinert they tried to create an art project that would not just export art into the country where it is presented, but integrate it. Namely for this reason within the framework of ART KYIV contemporary Ostende and Reinert will study Kyiv’s industrial space. And the artists promise that the result of this “artistic residence” will be a unique author’s project, a research into the activity of Kyiv’s big industrial companies. The visitors of ART KYIV contemporary will be the first to see it, the French duo assured.
THE US
The American contribution to the exhibit was made by Tatyana Mironova who brought to Kyiv the work of well-known artist David Datuna, whose installation Putin – Mona Lisa became a sensation of the artistic fair “Art-Moscow.” The abovementioned work was sold to a Russian collector for 200,000 euros.
The installation of Ukrainian flag created by Datuna is a media collage of the events that have taken place within the 20 years of Ukraine’s independence, which the author placed under lens. Using visual effect, the author seemingly asserts that there can be different views on history.
Will anyone be eager to buy the mentioning of Ukrainian events in the recent 20 years, covered by thick lens, I wonder? Incidentally, the US flag by Datuna is now stored in the White House, and Canada’s flag was purchased by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
KYIV-BERLIN
The German WHITE SQUARE GALLERY (Berlin) exhibited the world of Kyiv’s artist Oleksandra Zhumailova-Dmytrovska. Her project includes graphics and concept from the “TV” series. The hero of Zhumailova-Dmytrovska’s works is homo televisius, a person born by the silver screen. S/he talks quotations from films and TV shows, perceives the world through news shows, takes a virtual part in all TV competitions, and consumes food only recommended by commercials. Sitting on a sofa, s/he is able to live in a reality show, sing karaoke, dance at the Mai-dan, weep others’ tears, dance with others’ legs, put off and put on weight following a TV show, survive on an uninhabited island, and be a star of all TV series. S/he knows many TV characters better than his/her neighbors. S/he feels time only when a new season of her favorite TV series appears.
Zhumailova-Dmytrovska says that she wanted to bring to people the fact that TV life exists only owing to our joint efforts. “Switch the channels and rule” is the main message of her project.
INSTEAD OF AFTERWORD
ART KYIV contemporary 2011 is gratifying for the audience because you can easily make a photo of yourself with the art of late 20th – early 21st centuries in the background. You can hardly find such luxury in museums. But in Mystetsky Arsenal, during the opening of the largest artistic platform in Ukraine you could easily measure the curves of Jackson’s statuettes or the plait in Tymoshenko’s portrait. And sculptor Oleh Pinchuk even offered to the visitors to make photos with his works in the background, presented by an iron wardrobe with a spider’s web, in which an orange cup of the revolution’s time and men’s black shoes got entangled. “Five minutes and it’s done,” the artist appealed. Maybe, this is the essence of contemporary art: an idea, a flash, and a masterpiece.
