An exhibition about space — mythical, uncanny, and real. About its indivisibility and its many forms of manifestation. About movement and conscious action that change the way we perceive it. About healing trauma within the chaos and constant horror of contemporary life.
The project is the result of a collaboration between two artists from Dnipro. It began with the paintings and poetry of Volodymyr Gabuda, for which Oleksandr Suprun created a sound installation.
The exhibition consists of three parts: Darkness, Movement, and Pharmacy of the Heavens. Darkness symbolizes endless tragedies, horror, and trauma. Movement represents conscious actions that help shift one’s perspective from one side of space to another: accepting the inevitability of horror while focusing on the search for healing. Pharmacy of the Heavens is a space of recovery and care.
This project continues the artist’s exploration of trauma, first developed in his previous project Mutations. There, trauma appeared as an unconscious defensive reaction of the body. Wounds caused by traumatic experiences transformed into cone-shaped spikes and themselves became dangerous to others. This unconscious response to trauma could grow from a defensive mechanism into aggressive violence. As we know, violence generates violence. So how can one heal and break out of this closed circle?
Reflecting on this question in his new project, Volodymyr creates a multidimensional space capable of causing pain and relieving it. Healing begins with recognizing the connection between the traumatic and the healing sides as parts of the same whole. The next step is movement. Not reflexive reactions, but conscious actions — a struggle against the forces of darkness. At this moment, the Pharmacy of the Heavens opens, where everything becomes a tool for resistance and healing. It is this movement, or its absence, that determines which side of space we focus on and what direction we choose.
In his artistic practice, the artist turns to dreams as a mirror of life. The images found there emerge and fill the space, constantly changing over time. Strange creatures move, transform, and live alongside us. The scenes depicted on the canvases do not form a linear narrative. Instead, they are fragmented visual stories that appear and disappear like dreams, intertwining with one another. Poetry becomes their verbal trace, expanding this uncanny dimension through another layer of perception.
To complement the exhibition with spatial sound, we invited Oleksandr Suprun. He and Volodymyr met in 2024 during the Imaginary City residency organized by Kultura Medialna. Interested in working with acoustics, Oleksandr created a three-channel composition using three synthesizers. Each track is autonomous and was recorded separately for each part of the project. Their simultaneous sounds from different sides of the exhibition space continue the idea of indivisibility and reveal how our perception of space changes with our actions. Moving through the exhibition, the viewer unintentionally becomes the “conductor” of their own auditory experience. Images and narratives come alive in the imagination and begin their movement.
Oleksandra Shovkun
WHEN: June 5 – August 8, 2026
WHERE: Artsvit Gallery, 21a Krutohirny descent, Dnipro (entrance through the glass doors from Uspenska Square)
ADMISSION FREE
Curator: Oleksandra Shovkun
Design: Alla Sorochan
Volodymyr Gabuda was born in 1990 in Dnipro. He works with painting, graphics, and poetry. He graduated from the Dnipropetrovsk Theatre and Art College with a degree in Fine Arts. A key principle of his practice is the integrity of his own mythological space, shaped by uncanny memories and imagination. He lives and works in Dnipro.
Oleksandr Suprun, born in 1999 in Dnipro, is a sound artist and member of the independent experimental scene, known under the alias Trancedænce. In his music, he combines methods of free improvisation, psychedelia, noise, schizoanalysis, and situationism. Each musical session is unique and seeks to convey the atmosphere of its surroundings and the context in which it unfolds. He lives and works in Dnipro.
