The term “curator,” which has become popular among other trendy words, still does not have its true resonance here. Ukrainian critics do not take responsibility for creating their own intellectual mythology capable of subordinating a number of creative individuals of contemporary art, which forms the basis of curators’ activities worldwide. Our art historians simply group artists by interests, showing the result of this club activity.
Curatorship, meanwhile, is a concrete profession, as evidenced by the conceptual justification of Natalia Filonenko’s exhibition, which stood out advantageously among the art festival projects. Her experience and professionalism were reflected in her ability to think project-wise. And in the selection of artists: not by the usual principle — in a close territorial environment, but artists who have proven their presence in the international field of contemporary art. Filonenko’s exhibition truly became international: the project “The Good, the Bad, the Ugly,” which united artists from Ukraine and Russia, was supported by the Pro Helvetia Foundation from Switzerland. Video installations by Olena Kovylina “Visiting a Fairy Tale” and Marian Zhunin “Pamphlet” (Three Sisters and Three Components of Contemporary Art), the video group RADEK’s “Demonstration,” Vasyl Tsagolov’s pseudo-realistic paintings on the theme of paranormal phenomena in recognizable landscapes of the Ukrainian village, and a series of color drawings by Vasyl Kozhukhar, whose motifs are oriented towards the independent unfolding of pedophilic sexopathological metaphors, were presented. The most famous participants of “The Good, the Bad, the Ugly” are the group of artists “Inspection ‘Medical Hermeneutics’.” It is represented by the 1990 photo project “We Are Your Grandfather,” which became a classic of post-Soviet conceptual art. The creators classify the photo cycle as psychedelic realism. In the image of a bearded grandfather who has split, the authors try to trample a little boy curled up on the floor. These works from the collection of art historian Andriy Yerofeyev now belong to the State Tretyakov Gallery.
The choice of artist Anatoliy Tverdy for the festival project of art historian Olga Lagutenko “My Terribly Beloved Woman” was successful. Large-scale sculptural works made of acrylic glass and ebonite resins look modern and ironic, although the irony of the lively “Polovtsian Babas” contradicts the high style of the curatorial text. Conscious creativity does not necessarily have to pathetically encompass all the depths of the universe. It is enough that Tverdy found the opportunity to embody his ideas using fashionable materials. The technology of the process was obviously fascinating, as evidenced by the large number of objects. Probably even too many for the space allotted to them.
The “Catacombs” project was created by art historian Oleksiy Tytarenko. Its participants associate themselves with the first Christians. Although the press release information that Christians who gathered in the catacombs “did not yet have iconography” contradicts the data of church archaeology. A pleasant nostalgia is evoked by the installation of Hanna Sydorenko and Serhiy Yakunin in the basement hall of the Contemporary Art Center “Soviart” — stone pendants on wooden poles. It recalls the smiling Mrs. Monika, who draws aside the bamboo curtains of the “13 Chairs” cabaret. The minor mood is added by Victoria Denbnovetska’s video installation “Birds” — images of the rotation of the tops of bare trees and birds constantly moving from branch to branch. The white mesh in front of the screen is supposed to create a mist effect. The sad video sequence, which lulls, turns into a monotonous sound of bird cries. All this obviously transmits the poetic materiality of the surrounding world. The elementary poetry of the “Catacombs” uses empty forms to define the measure of spirituality. Combined with rural neatness, the exhibition looks sad.
The project “The Pit, or Solitude in the Texts of Scores” at the Ukrainian House is a decoration of an orchestra pit with music stands on which flat ceramic forms mainly of string instruments by Odessa artist Oleg Mymrin flow. Nearby, curator Olga Bebko exhibited numerous artists who use glass, metal, and ceramics in installations. The forms of these projects resemble the searches of the perestroika era and today are rather objects from the field of interior design.
Most of the exhibitions at the Ukrainian House demonstrated, most likely, the existence of a decorative object — a product in the design environment, where the object is a variation on the same theme.
