Lada Nakonechna. “Place.” 2009. Wall drawing, graphite pencil

Job Description

This is the last project created during the existence of the CSM at NaUKMA. Lada Nakonechna spent a week drawing on the walls of the exhibition hall with a graphite pencil, shading the illuminated areas. After the work was completed, the project was opened to visitors for a few days, after which Nakonechna personally painted over the drawing, as was agreed with the organizers in advance. 

The key element of the work is the artist’s interaction with the specific space and the chiaroscuro of its walls, created as a result of artificial lighting. Ultimately, painted over with pencil, the hall became even more empty, deprived of the usual landmarks for the viewer: slopes, corners, and irregularities. 

This gesture of “blurring” the exhibition space became important and pivotal for the professional and creative development of the artist and her generation, as it began her path to a stable and consistent institutional critique. After all, the exhibition space embodies power, marking the boundaries of art perception and the directions of visitors’ gaze.