Sexual, social, and rational

Once every two years PinchukArtCentre displays the works of 20 best Ukrainian artists, according to the jury. Once in every two years one of the artists receives a considerable (even in view of inflation) cash prize of 100,000 hryvnias and a month-long internship abroad, at their senior colleague’s studio. Two more participants receive 25,000 hryvnias each and internship, too. It is hard to tell, to what extent these regular encouragements improve the state of Ukrainian art (however, no prizes have ever influenced cardinally such subtle processes); but there is no doubt, it has given some excitement to our artistic circles over the past five years.

Incidentally, stats can come in handy here. As many as 974 artists have submitted their works this year. For the most part, they come from the capital: 392 aspirants from Kyiv, then, with a big breakaway, goes Kharkiv region (73), closely followed by Lviv (69), and then (a pleasant surprise for me a former resident of Dnipropetrovsk) goes party-industrial Dnipropetrovsk region (59), ahead of Odesa (42), Donetsk (27), and the Crimea (37).

The final list includes Yevhenia Bielorusets (Kyiv), Anatolii Bielov (Kyiv), Volodymyr Vorotniov (Kyiv), Danylo Halkin (Dnipropetrovsk), Oleh Hryshchenko (Kyiv), Anna Zviahintseva (Kyiv), Dobrynia Ivanov (Kyiv), Zhanna Kadyrova (Kyiv), Alina Kopytsia (Boiarka, Kyiv oblast), Maria Kulykivska (Kyiv), Oleksandr Kurmaz (Kyiv), Roman Minin (Kharkiv), Lada Nakonechna (Kyiv), Mykola Ridny (Kharkiv), Ivan Svitlychny (Kharkiv), Andrii Khir (Lviv), Olesia Khomenko (Kyiv), as well as artistic groups Melnychuk-Burlaka (Ivan Melnychuk and Oleksandr Burlaka, Kyiv), Synchrodogs (Roman Noven, 28, Lutsk, and Tetiana Shchehlova, 23, Ivano-Frankivsk), and Vidkryta hrupa (Open Group: Yurii Bilei, Lviv; Stanislav Turina, Lviv; Pavlo Kovach, Lviv; Yevhen Samborsky, Kyiv; Anton Varha, Lviv).

It is hardly possible to unite these artists under one denominator, but there are some common moments: the projects of different authors go in conceptual, thematic, or genre blocks.

For example, Zhanna Kadyrova, Roman Minin, and Oleh Hryshchenko turned to large figurative form. Kadyrova executed quite a traditional mosaic panel picture, calling it Monumental Propaganda, without any unnecessary decorations. In a sense, it is a massive joke: a typical composition of the Soviet agitprop of a wall size, which is made of smalt and tiles and depicts two female and two male figures, is glorifying the attractions of capitalistic hedonism. This is a joke, Ukrainian postmodernists started to make back in perestroika time; the work is innovative in terms of technique and scale, however, its monumentality suppresses irony.

Many-figure black-and-white composition created by Roman Minin Donetsk Oblast Escape Plan is a lengthy conceptual project of its own: Minin has been recreating it in many variations and seizes for the past two years. It is a cluster of miners, celestials, and cars, painted in an awkward-placard manner, which results into some chimerical, but powerful whole. This time Roman unfolds Escape Plan as a monumental-decorative canvas with elements of bas-relief and uses social interaction: the opposite wall displays a version of Escape of the same seize, which was painted, however, by children from Donetsk region, who visited Kyiv within the framework of this idea. The project is bright enough, although the gallery seems to be a bit too small for its scale.

Oleh Hryshchenko in Great Ukrainian Wall, having carved several tens of wooden planks, collected a kind of a map of Ukraine: although the imprints are lying on the floor, Minin and Kadyrova’s messages about Ukrainian life, even indirect ones, are more interesting.

The projects by Alina Kopytsia and group Synchrodogs, dedicated to physicality and eroticism, are a bridge to each other. Kopytsia offers for the visitors an ambivalent and very funny blindfold game “Pop it in,” and Synchrodogs – an installation of a series of compositions of naked women’s photos with landscapes of different extent of bizarreness, in the background. However, Kopytsia has an advantage, because a game, naughtiness, and balancing on the verge are more efficient than observation.

This year’s finalists include two street graphic artists: Volodymyr Vorotniov and Andrii Khir. Their reaction to the exposition space, which is new for them, turned out to be diametrically opposite.

Khir painted a double mural Water is Leading, based on the biblical story of Noah’s ark: two opposite frescoes. Using minimalist technique, he turned this story into a symbolic picture by painting a conditional deluge, suffered by a whole bestiary of bizarre creatures. The red fire hydrant in the middle of the hall diminishes possible drama effect.

Vorotniov makes a totally different work: he scatters gravel to make an even square, inserts whitewashed trunks of trees, a whitewashed lantern post, and a white car tire, dug into the ground to the half, by this constructing a landscape, which is perfectly familiar to all former citizens of the Soviet Union – you won’t see any of such “park-utility” amenities anywhere in the world. Former street artist acts unexpectedly and wittingly, bringing the street into the gallery, rather than street graffiti.

Leader of the R.E.P. group Anna Zviahintseva, too, has street artist associations. The artist reproduces on iron an enlarged picture of two female hands, washing a dish, and acquires a double effect: from distance, in a white box this Fragment looks like a huge laconic graffito, whereas at close it turns out to be a monument of life routine.

Social motives can be felt very well at the exhibit. Constant Dropping Wears Away a Stone: Mykola Ridny shot an interview-film with a former policeman, who is now a sculptor named Dmytro. Dmytro spares no bitter words about the system, in which he used to work, tells well-known things about corruption and lawlessness in law-enforcement bodies. At Ridny’s order the hero of the film cut several pairs of policeman boots of granite. The result is straightforward, but well-designed: at first several monitors show scenes of public protests and militia ranks, later – a row of stone boots on a pedestal, and finally the big screen shows Dmytro’s bitter confession, who note among other things that if he made these boots of worm-eaten wood.

Halkin’s installation in the next hall is a perfect rhyme to Ridny’s installation: two rows of black turnstiles from ceiling to the floor, which cannot be avoided – a total control point, concentration of guarding paranoia; these days we see enough of it.

Purely conceptualistic compositions, where the idea prevails over the form, and archiving of artistic work becomes the form, were outnumbered. The Open Group showed the work in the process: gathered impressions in photos, videos, and tiny details and showed them in the frames hung beforehand and video monitors. Dobrynia Ivanov developed his installation Conversations-Katia, based on talks with Kateryna Buchatska, by adding items and pictures which were mentioned during the interviews. The box is gradually filled with felt pens, inscriptions on the walls, jars with species, polyethylene bags, cosmetics, etc. Ivan Melnychuk and Oleksandr Burlaka focused on the so-called paper architecture – utopian direction, in which architects give way to their imagination, creating on paper most fantastic houses without any hope to realize their ideas. With their designs, miniatures, and business correspondence show chimerical projects of intrusion into the historical environment of Kyiv, Venice, and Amsterdam.

Each installation is interesting in its own way, but they all inherited the fault of conceptualism (which used to be an advantage, but has lost its value because of frequent use) – commentary here is more important than the text, and the context of creating the image is more important than the image itself.

On the contrary, Lada Nakonechna prefers the image over concept, to such an extent that the former absorbs the latter, with only direct impression remaining. Demonstrative Example of My Participation is an optical illusion, which was measured with pinpoint accuracy, does not have any unnecessary elements: at first we see a black-and-white photo of an empty interior behind the wall, then we see a false wall, drawn by the artist, which from a certain angle seems to be a part of the interior, like a real wall, later we understand that namely the false wall was photographed, and behind the real wall (what is real here and what is not?) we discover a real live guard, right out of the blue.

Undoubtedly, it can be said already now Anatolii Bielov stands very high chances to win in one of the nominations. His nine-minute video is a fragment from his movie Sex, Treatment, Rock-N-Roll. Bielov is the director of the film, performer of the song and an episodic role.

A young and handsome gay guy, who continues to argue with his talkative opponent, sings about his love problems; the melody is catchy and the refrain “My lover does not kiss: he has a girlfriend and principles” sticks in memory right away. This is an absolutely professional musical film with bright exemplars, well-arranged choreography, and convincing actors – it can be shown in cinemas right now; at the same time it is a wholesome artistic project, which has everything contemporary art needs: reasoning, masterful performance, and provocativeness.

So, sexual, social, and a bit of intellectual games make a widespread exhibition mix. Judging by this, the entire exposition is hardly a breakthrough, but quite a precise diagnosis of current state of affairs.

At the moment PinchukArtCentre is celebrating a small PR victory. Afro-British Lynette Yiadom Boakye, who was last year awarded with Pinchuk’s Future Generation Art Prize (her first exhibition in Eastern Europe, “Verses,” is held in the Center), was one of four nominees for the top art award of the United Kingdom, the Turner Prize.

As for Kyiv, the winners will be selected by members of international jury. The awarding ceremony will take place in Kyiv in December 2013.