How Are You? Exhibition and discussion at the Ukrainian House

1.06 — 25.06, National Center Ukrainian House, Khreshchatyk 2 
The exhibition How Are You? will open to the public on June 1, 10:00

«Are you OK?» is a question that has become a common expression of love over the past year. From June 1 to 25, the Ukrainian Museum of Contemporary Art, the Past / Future / Art memory culture platform, and the Ukrainian House National Center will present the project«How are You?» - an exhibition of artworks by Ukrainian artists about the year 2022 experience and a discussion program dedicated to the commemoration of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The exhibition project summarizes the experience of our emotional swings, dependence on news, salvation and self-sacrifice, fear, and hope reflected through the works of more than 100 contemporary Ukrainian artists. Their statements, created after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, will cover all five floors of the Ukrainian House.«How are You?» is the first project of the Ukrainian Museum of Contemporary Art (UMCA). According to the organizers, time is the leading curator of this exhibition. Through the practices of the participating artists, eight curators (Yegor Antsygin, Olga Balashova, Galina Gleba, Yulia Karpets, Anna-Maria Kucherenko, Katya Libkind, Tatiana Lisun, and Oleksandr Solovyov) are exploring the relentless movement of time. On June 17-18, the discussion program Art and War will take place, a series of conversations about the experience of Ukrainian society and the formation of memor

Norm

The question «How are you?», voiced not only by the curatorial team of the exhibition at the Ukrainian House but also by everyone who cares about the Other, is addressed by Nikita Kadan with a separate project. In the same period, the artist will open a collective apartment exhibition Norm about the new normal (based on the materials of the disaster). 

THERE IS (NOT). Volt Agapeev, Dima Tolkachev, Dymchuk Gallery 

2.06 — 25.06.2023
Opening: June 2 at 18:00, 21 Yaroslavska St. The gallery is open for the public from 15:00 

Dymchuk Gallery presents the project There is (not) by Volt Agapeev and Dima Tolkachev, which includes works that appeared mostly after the full-scale invasion. Thematically, the project focuses on the nature of blurred time that results from the ongoing war. The semi-phantom images point to the real problem of emotional devastation. Yet, the authors leave an open space for hope through metaphorical parallels.

* From the curatorial text:«topographical maps become traces of the past – ghosts of streets that no longer exist. yesterday and today have merged into the everlasting now, and tomorrow is a ghost between the not and the is. we believe that we will rebuild cities, but we do not know how soon we'll restore emotional ashes. the only sense of the future is the hope that all the wastelands will return to life and the voids will eventually be filled. however, it is up to us to choose whether to feel sad for the way things were before or happy for how things are now.» 

Talking about Myself? Talking about You, Voloshyn Gallery 

02.06.2023 – 09.07.2023
Opening: June 2 from 18:00 to 20:00, Tereshchenkovskaya 13

Voloshyn Gallery is presenting a group exhibition Talking about Myself? Talking about You, curated by Mykola Ridnyi. Participants: Kateryna Vishneva, Open Group artist collective, Sashko Protyah, Dasha Chechushkova, and Kamila Yanar. In the context of war, the notion of human experience becomes identical with the notion of trauma. It is routinely said that a collective trauma is made up of personal stories. But does this really work the way it sounds? Media representation of war is able to crowd out memories of things seen with one’s own eyes. Dramatic and tragic but above all visually striking images of explosions, ruins, killed people create a canonical way of documenting war as a catastrophe. This collective catastrophe often renders personal trials invisible and indistinguishable. Our exhibition gives voice to personal experiences constituting its collective body. This body is composed of differences and similarities; its underlying principle is polyphony rather than rule of collective morality.

Documentation of a Happening, Nikita Kravtsov, The Naked Room

02.06 — 02.07.2023
Opening: June 2 at 19:00, 21 Reitarska St, Kyiv

‘Documentation of a Happening’ is Nikita Kravtsov's first solo exhibition in Kyiv in a long time. Nikita has been living in Paris since 2015, but his practice remains connected with the Ukrainian political agenda and artistic environment. His murals communicate with citizens daily in the public space of Vienna, Paris and Nairobi. Among these practice, the artist's mural ‘Recording an Act of Genocide’, which was held in May 2022 at the Bordeaux Museum of Contemporary Art, stands out.  Happening was originally conceived as a response to President Macron's statement that the events in Bucha were not a genocide of the Ukrainians. Nikita then invited people to recreate with their own bodies the scenes they had seen on the streets of the cities and towns of the Kyiv region after the de-occupation. The action  acquires a completely different status thanks to the method of documentation chosen by Kravtsov — painting. It is this slow medium that ultimately creates the necessary distance to talk about such extremely traumatic and sensitive events as crimes against humanity.

Days, Days, Saint Sophia Cathedral, Khlibnya

3.06 — 3.07.2023
The Days, Days exhibition will open to the public on June 3. 24, Volodymyrska Street. 
Entrance is by tickets of St. Sophia. 

We often measure life by days, but what do these days are made of? What do we take from one day to the following? What are the signs of our «today»? What and whom do we remember from yesterday? And from previous years?«Days, Days» is an attempt at a total installation of everyday life and rituals that become vital in turbulent times. The project is curated by Stanislav Turina, co-founder of the self-organized gallery Detenpyla (Lviv); a group of artists with and without Down syndrome; and the Open Group, which presented the project at the Venice Biennale in 2019. Stanislav comments on the preparations for the opening: «Before you can understand this exhibition, you have to feel it. How exactly can you see the exhibition? In some ways, it is a system of mirrors scattered around the exhibition, something about our days, the search for a response, an interlocutor, and support. This exhibition will not do without the «works-milestones». These are the works with a specific density that attract our attention». Participants: Tiberiy Silvashi, Lusia Ivanova, Pavlo Kovach Jr, Daria Kuzmych, Lada Nakonechna, Dobrynya Ivanov, Yaroslav Futimsky, Oleksandr Yeltsin, Asya Krasilnikova, Yevhen Golubentsev, Arkady Shtypel, Bohdana Davydiuk, Oleksandr Surovtsev, Iryna Holoborodko, Mariana Klochko, Ruslan Tremba and Vira Minailova, Understructures, Konstantin Smolyaninov, Vasyl Dymyd, Lisa Biletska. The exhibition in St. Sophia Cathedral is the first in a series of projects planned by thesteinstudio, a self-organized space that aims to promote contemporary Ukrainian art and build a networking community after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.