Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie и Wydział Badań Artystycznych i Studiów Kuratorskich ASP Warszawa.
Pałac Czapskich-Krasińskich.

Curators

Zuza Andruszko, Julia Barbasiewicz, Karolina Hutna, Maria Jasek, Kamila Kabała, Natalia Kwasowiec, Valeriia Mostenets, Barbara Pawlak, Jan Prange-Barczyński, Łukaszka Staszkiewicz, Szymon Stefaniak, Radosław Sykuła, Zuzanna Wielgo

Mentoring dr Marika Kuźmicz.

The Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine began in 2014 after the Revolution of Dignity, a protest against Viktor Yanukovych’s failure to sign an association agreement with the European Union. The success of Euromaidan led to the annexation of Crimea, then the start of a hybrid war in Eastern Ukraine. The escalation of violence that occurred on 24 February this year is merely a continuation.

Over the past eight years, the Ukrainian artistic community has not been indifferent. Resistance through actions on the borders of art and activism has become an immanent part of contemporary Ukrainian culture. Our aim and response is to provide space for the expression of resistance both by Ukrainian artists and to present the voices of support and solidarity from Belarus and Poland, to provide space for Ukrainian art created there and now, to give voice to the witnesses, because visual representation in the reality of war is an act of courage, courage comparable to that needed at the front. The creative act is an act of struggle.

Images and depictions of war are imposed by the subjects of war. We want to present images that show the fragility of life, but that also express its will and are founded on an active opposition to unjustified violence. The framework of the war is built on a certain narrative, and its deconstruction would consist in promoting Ukrainian culture, the main component of national identity, which the aggressor is trying to invalidate. Depictions of the everyday recording of events and the materiality of the conflict serve to devalue the need and sense of necessity for war. The exhibition also features a reproduction of a mosaic by Alla Horska.  >>>