I am tending my mother's garden: I help her with old cherry branches. Where there are no flowers or buds, cut them off. It used to hurt me to even watch someone pruning trees. I go to the greenhouse and pull up grass between the seedlings with my fingers. The earth gets stuck under my nails. I look at my palms and know for sure that they are dirty with soil. But my eyes see dried blood.
This exhibition will showcase everything we have created during the course — products made of paper, wool and other natural objects. In addition, we offer the parents of our young artists to get to know these materials better and find out what place they occupy in the culture of mankind. The gallery space will host several creative workshops, where all guests of the event will learn the magic of recycling under the careful supervision of children, turning natural materials into art.
This year, the “Secondary Archive” welcomes 15 new Ukrainian female artists whose works explore the theme of war. War, inherently patriarchal, a phenomenon from which vulnerable social groups have always suffered more and continue to suffer. When a society militarises itself in response to armed aggression, war unconsciously perpetuates a hierarchy that labels certain experiences as primary while relegating others to a secondary status. This division permeates various facets of life, casting women as objects rather than subjects of war and reinforcing outdated notions of gender roles – presenting women as the “weaker gender”. In such contexts, art often becomes a luxury and a privilege.
Hence, there is a pressing need to seek out alternative narratives that depict the realities of war. The artists participating in the exhibition do not directly depict warfare in their works; the imagery of battlefields or the aftermath of Russian missile attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure no longer evoke the shock they once did.
This exhibition attempts to see the value of brokenness, collect scattered sadness, and extend the hand. Where there seemed to be integrity finally broken, it will appear precisely because of looking at the rupture line, which is uneven and trembling.
Gather everyone, and leave no one behind. No one will be left behind.
Tetiana Pukhnavtseva
World Press Photo Exhibition 2023 opens at Artsvit Gallery and Dnipro Center for Contemporary Culture on February 2nd, 2024. Presenting the results of the foundation’s annual photo contest, the World Press Photo Exhibition showcases the best photojournalism and documentary photography of 2022. The event in Ukraine is supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ukraine. The exhibition partner — Odesa Photo Days Festival.
Dnipro is the third city on the national exhibition tour. Over 2000 viewers visited the exhibition in Kyiv and Kharkiv from November 2023.
Our artistic and educational project, "Artsvit for Kids 2023”, has ended: it was an exciting and rich ten weeks of thorough work, which should be finalized and, most importantly, presented to others. This exhibition features many works: masks, comics, sculptures, various drawings, figures for shadow theater, and even cartoons. They embody the knowledge about art and the world, satisfaction, and joy that the participants of the program received in the process of their creation. But the gallery team and teachers' main task was to allow children to freely fantasize, use their imagination to the maximum, feel like real artists, and simply be children: direct, inquisitive, and happy.
«…To all those who urge us to "stop hating not to become the same with russians”.
To all those who want peace, but don’t understand that peace can be only won in a battle. That rage is fuel. Rage gives energy for the fight and fight – is not only survival, it is life itself. Strong feelings, strong words and strong actions, even if they may destroy you, are better than avoidant silence.
There are events as a result of which ordinary life seems to stop. Everyone's catalyst for such changes is something special, something personal. Global upheavals also do not pass without a trace — even when an empty city after the destruction gradually comes to life, and people return to their homes, the feeling of emptiness remains. It may never be possible to return to the usual routine.
What did the author want to say? What do I see in this image? Two questions with which acquaintance with the exposition begins. Sometimes we try to understand the artist and learn more about his/her experience, and sometimes we try to understand ourselves, focusing on our feelings and vision. Depending on the optics we choose, our perception of the exhibition is formed, and everything boils down to interpretation.
The "Protective Layer" project continues Kostiantyn's creative practice. Still, the changes in reality that are happening now have forced him to reconsider the meaning of previously created images and invented techniques.
For us, this is an actual result of a long and conscientious work with children in a difficult time for everyone. Art, communication, education - all these helped and still helps children cope with today's challenges. What kind of results are these? Art objects made by children from 6 to 13 years old, collective exhibition of young artists. We would like to share this with more people, so we invite everyone who wants to join the presentation of the project already this Saturday!
We are happy to announce that the Artsvit Gallery is opening a new exhibition outside its own walls. "I Dreamt of Beasts" will be available at the Labirynt Gallery (Lublin, Poland) from November 25 to February 5, 2023. The exhibition was created from the thought of an enchanted forest, which was previously a place of walking, tranquillity and peace for us, and now it is full of threats: mined areas, places of rape, murder and shocking social tragedies...
