Somewhere Out There, Somewhere Beside. Ukrainian Video Art 2015–2019 is a video program selected and presented by curator Lesia Kulchynska on view at the library of NAC from November 11th until December 25th, 2019.
The presentation compiles video works by artists based in Ukraine produced during the war in Donbas. These artists have never been at the front line and didn’t experience the war directly. But during the four years from 2015 until today, they have been living very close to it and with it.
The war is “somewhere out there”: on the TV screens, in “that other place”. But at the same time it is inside. In the bodies nearby, in the nightmares, in insecurities, in the outbreaks of violence, in distrust, in expectance.
Videos presented at NAC capture the space alongside the death zone, somewhere in-between the reality and dreams. The space in the videos is inhabited by different types of creatures: some of them are neighbors who live next door to each other but never want to meet, some of them remind of ghosts who strive to be noticed. Others resemble phantoms who leak from the virtual reality and seek for the place in the material world. Somewhere out there, there is a happier future that all of them are looking for. Somewhere beside, some dreamers don’t want to wait and are building their own tiny ways out right now.
There is a frightening feeling that war in Donbas came up from the TV screens. This feeling questions the supposed safety of the viewer’s position. All of a sudden the reality turned to be similar to the horror films, where the screens can be transparent and an act of seeing may be dangerous. Perhaps, it’s time to acknowledge that the viewer is a part of the game. What would it mean for us, those who are in front of the screens?
Lesia Kulcynska
Works by the artists:
Alina Kleytman, Alina Yakubenko, AntiGonna, Boris Kashapov, Fantastic little splash, Iryna Kudrya, Ksenia Hnylytska, Maria Kulikovska, Mediator group, Mykola Ridnyi, Oleksiy Radynski, Piotr Armianovski, Roman Mikhaylov.
Lesia Kulchynska (based in Kyiv) is a curator, art critic, culture studies and visual culture researcher. She worked as a researcher and curator at the Visual Culture Research Center in Kyiv (2011–2019). She is also a founder of Nomadic School of Visual Education and co-founder (together with artist Maria Kulykivska) of School for Political Performance.
Her curated projects include: Ukrainian Body (2012), discussion platform Between Revolution and War (2014), exhibition and research project Some Say You Can Find Happiness There (2015), The School of the Lonesome program of The School of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial 2015, as well as performance and exhibition project The Raft CrimeA (2016
Lesia Kulchynska is first participant in the exchange program between Ukranian Institute and Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts starting in 2019.
