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Fear and Hope: Nikita Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova, Artem Volokitin

Fear and Hope: Nikita Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova, Artem Volokitin

Exhibitions

May 17, 2014 - October 5, 2014

The PinchukArtCentre presents Fear and Hope — a group exhibition of three Ukrainian artists: Nikita Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova and Artem Volokitin, the Main Prize Winners of the PinchukArtCentre Prize since 2009. With this showartistsrespond to the new sociopolitical context of Ukraine formed by recent events in the country and ongoing crisis.

In November 2013, citizens of Ukraine started an unyielding protest, where people occupied Maidan, the central square in Kyiv, in defence of their ideas for future Ukraine. Artists from all over Ukraine were at the forefront of those protests. They were present there both as citizens and artists. It resulted in a flow of artistic practices, documentary images, texts, performances and actions.

With protests turning violent, being an artist inside the protests somehow lost its place. Between 18 and 20 February, more than 100 protesters were shot dead in the streets. It was the tragic highlight in more than three months of on-going peaceful protests. In the rush of events, the space to reflect artistically disappeared and was exchanged for direct action.

Bjorn Geldhof, Deputy Artistic Director of the PinchukArtCentre, curator of the show:

“The exhibition Fear and Hope shows that there was urgency from the artist to deal with the dramatic events that have changed Ukraine. And it is that urgency that finds form into the exhibition. Through their works somehow there is a distance created which offers a platform to think and discuss the future of Ukraine but also remember what has happened in the last several months.”

In the middle of this ongoing conflict, Fear and Hope embodies an urgent artistic response. Nikita Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova and Artem Volokitin deal with past and recent conditions of their country, exploring subjects of conflict, memory and individual loss. The exhibition in the PinchukArtCentre is a platform where artists can be both critical and non-partisan, and combines their new produced works with older works, revealing the presence and development of those subjects through their thinking.