Lada Nakonechna. Exhibition. 2016. Installation

Work description

As Lada Nakonechna notes, Exhibition was one of her first comprehensive curatorial statements, aimed at institutional critique through dialogue with the viewer and a conscious manipulation of their gaze, body, and way of thinking.
The PinchukArtCentre space was transformed into a total installation, each element of which invited visitors to question the very process of viewing an exhibition, occupying a space, and perceiving specific images within it. Three additional walls—placed too close to one another and diagonally angled—presented preparatory materials: correspondence between the artist and the institution, a floor plan, and stages of exhibition planning. Another wall displayed wallpaper fragments from the institution’s own media documentation: website screenshots, exhibition openings, and installation photos.
A key element was the work Away from Danger (2014): walls with peepholes, one looking out onto the street, another into a gallery with a parallel project. One peephole was accompanied by a 3D photo of the swollen, bruised eyes of a streamer-journalist who joined the 2014 Revolution of Dignity protests and was injured. Through this, the artist visualizes how the gaze can shift from passive observation to active engagement.

All these wall manipulations—symbolizing the exhibition’s borders—render the space closed off and separate from the surrounding reality. Yet they compel the viewer to keep that reality in mind while inside the space. The exhibition thus objectifies itself by going beyond its own limits: we learn about its creation while squeezing between walls; we peek out from within it, as though meeting others at our apartment door. In the end, Nakonechna offers the viewer a choice: simply observe, or analyze and take action.
Since this project, Nakonechna has focused on creating exhibitions as formats for challenging the frameworks set by institutions and systems of artistic representation—together with the viewer.