Invitation to a press conference on “Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories. Ukrainian Art 1912–2023”
27 April 2023Einladung zum Pressegespräch "Kaleidoskop der Geschichte(n). Ukrainische Kunst 1912-2023"
This is the first exhibition of its kind in Germany: from 6 May to 10 September 2023, the Albertinum, part of Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD), will be presenting an extensive survey of modern Ukrainian art. An area of some 1,200 square metres (13,000 square feet) will be dedicated to paintings, sculptures, photographs, installations, works on video and on paper, and the archives of some 50 artists representing Ukrainian art from the start of the 20th century to the present, offering insights into the country’s eventful history and constant struggle to define itself.
- Exhibition Site Albertinum
- DATES 06/05/2023—10/09/2023
Es ist die erste Ausstellung ihrer Art in Deutschland:
The exhibition “Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories. Ukrainian Art 1912–2023” explores four central, overlapping topics: Practices of Resistance, Culture of Memory, Spaces of Freedom and Thoughts on the Future, connecting the current situation to historical events, individual experiences and personal stories. Each individual artistic idiom portrays a specific microcosm that is intimately related to the country’s history and heritage. Using the many means available to modern art, they cast an introspective eye on contemporary Ukrainian culture, analysing it to reveal the complexity and diversity of the country’s present-day art scene.
The exhibition illustrates the cultural federalism underpinning Ukrainian culture: rather than developing centrally, in Kyiv alone, it has simultaneously sprung up in various cultural nuclei such as Dnipro, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Lviv and Odessa. The periods investigated include that following the country’s independence in the 1990s; the Revolution of Dignity from 2013 to 2014, and the time after the Russian annexation of Crimea. Since the Russian invasion on 24 February 2022, Ukrainian culture has once again become decentralised and nomadic. Many artists from those cultural nuclei have been forced to leave their cities and scatter across the world, living as migrants.
Marion Ackermann, Director General of the SKD: “I see the long-term protection of cultural assets as one of our main tasks as a museum, and one that is of existential importance considering the situation in Ukraine due to the war. The same is especially true when it comes to protecting the people, artists and our colleagues. We feel particularly compelled to set forth and highlight the individuality of their stories showing how art mediates between the past and present.”
To promote the production of art, new works will be presented by the artists Nikita Kadan, Kateryna Lysovenko, Lada Nakonechna and Masha Reva. In the context of the exhibition, the SKD’s Kupferstich-Kabinett has also purchased five drawings and a carbon paper tracing from the series “Drawing on Maidan” by the artist Lesia Khomenko. This will be the first exhibition outside Ukraine of paintings by the artist Kateryna Bilokur, and of various new works. Interacting together, they demonstrate the continuity of Ukraine’s culture and the origins of its contemporary art from the early days of the avant-garde genre to the present.
The exhibits have been brought together from private collections and museums such as the National Art Museum of Ukraine (Kyiv), the Odesa Fine Arts Museum, the National Folk Decorative Art Museum (Kyiv), the Stedley Art Foundation (Kyiv), the Prymachenko Family Foundation, the Dovzhenko Centre and MOCA NGO, the Artsvit Gallery (Dnipro) and the Ya Gallery Art Center (Kyiv/Lviv). The exhibition will be rounded off by loans from the Telekom Art Collection, the Akademie der Künste (Berlin), the German Bundestag’s Artothek and the Thyssen Bornemisza Art Collection TBA21. After being shown in Dresden, it will be displayed at the Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle, the Netherlands, from October 2023 to January 2024.
