– Why were Poland, Ukraine, and Russia specifically chosen to participate in the exhibition?
– For Ukraine, it was important to see itself in a broader context, to have the opportunity for comparison, to realize itself as part of the international artistic process. The exhibition was supposed, besides purely informational purposes, to fulfill a more complex task, namely to draw the attention of society and the state to the problem of forming a full-fledged infrastructure for contemporary art, without which it will be doomed to semi-underground, private existence with all the resulting consequences. The choice of Ukraine, Russia, and Poland, whose recent historical experiences respectively symbolize different degrees of dependence on the totalitarian idea, was meant to maximally differentiate the stated problem. Unfortunately, this did not happen. To date, the situation in contemporary Ukrainian art is quite complicated, even compared to the situation in Poland and Russia. There is a need to break out of the closed, conflict-ridden, and internecine artistic space.
– What difficulties did you encounter during the project implementation?
– The organizers of the “Kyiv Art Meeting” were the Ukrainian House Center and the International Renaissance Foundation. All attempts to involve various government bodies or other charitable foundations were unsuccessful. They refused any assistance, including moral support. Hence, the catastrophic lack of funds, which affected the development of subsequent events. The mismatch between the working conditions provided and the rank of the artists and critics who came to the exhibition caused dissatisfaction among many participants of the meeting. The situation was aggravated by a conflict that erupted between the project organizers and the curator of the Russian part, which blocked the prompt resolution of arising problems. Perhaps this conflict was one of the subjective reasons that influenced the closure of the Russian part. As a result, most of the installation was done on the last night, which is typical for Kyiv practice.
It was fatal that two events coincided in time and place, namely the opening of the avant-garde art exhibition and the celebration of the anniversary of the National Guard of Ukraine. In front of the artists and guests at the vernissage, works were removed from the exposition that actually had an anti-fascist character, but no one bothered to figure this out. All this happened under the triumphant marches performed by a brass band and toasts in honor of the anniversary celebrant.
[Artists and the Guard. // Merchant Bulletin. – 1995. – No.16. – P. 12.]Comment type: Published comment
