Friday – Saturday, November 7th – 8th, 2014, 19:00
Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street (1st floor), Kyiv)

On Friday, November 7th at 19:00 the screening of films Fortress and Common Places by Mykola Ridnyi, as well as Souveneir by Serhiy Popov will take place at Visual Culture Research Center. In his film Fortress Mykola Ridnyi juxtaposes documentary shots made during the uprising on Maidan in winter 2013 – 2014 and in Yanukovych’s residence in Mezhyhirya with texts about European Middle Ages. In such a way, the author draws a parallel between contemporary post Soviet neo-liberalism and European feudal monarchy system. Common Places by Mykola Ridnyi is a multichannel video, which shows huge Eastern European city standing on the verge of war. The film analyses, how social and political turmoil in the country changes the perception of public space. Souvenir by Serhiy Popov is a documentation of events around the demolished Lenin monument in Kyiv and analyses the mechanisms of collective destruction.

After the screening the discussion with the participation of authors will take place. Moderation – Lesia Kulchynska.

On Saturday, November 8th at 19:00 the screening of films Integration, Referendum, and Ukraine Goes to War by Oleksiy Radynski will take place. The film Integration is the result of months-long observation of public manifestations during the uprising on Maidan. Reproducing a gradual escalation of conflict, the film questions the connection between democracy and violence, as well as political action and religious ritual. This short film covers the time period between the first violent clashes in Kyiv in early December 2013 and the militarization of society as a result of Russian aggression in March 2014. Short video Referendum is a concrete personal story filmed in Simferopol during the annexation of Crimea, which refers to the historical context of Russian invasion. Video Ukraine Goes to War was shot in Donbas in March 2014, and shows the early stage of civil conflict, which has not yet developed into a full-scale war.

After the screening the discussion with the participation of author will take place. Moderation – Vasyl Cherepanyn.

Information about authors:

Serhiy Popov – artist, member of SOSka Group.

Mykola Ridnyi – artist, curator, member of SOSka Group. In 2013 he represented Ukraine at Venice Biennial. In 2014 his personal exhibition Shelter took place at Visual Culture Research Center.

Oleksiy Radynski – researcher, documentary film maker. He is a member of Visual Culture Research Center and editor of Political Critique magazine.

Screenings take place in the framework of “Between Revolution and War” project with support from Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (Germany).

Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC) was founded in 2008 for the purpose of creating the interdisciplinary platform for analysis of the Ukrainian post Soviet condition at the intersection of art, knowledge, and politics. Since its inception VCRC has organized over 150 debates, conferences and seminars with the participation of Ukrainian and international researchers, as well as nearly 20 art exhibitions.

Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street, Kyiv)

Events will take place with support from: Krytyka Polityczna (Poland), ERSTE Foundation (Austria).

Media partnership:

Contacts:
+38 096 492 96 00 (Nataliya Neshevets), +38 093 460 68 81 (Oksana Briukhovetska)
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua

Thursday, November 6th 2014, 19:00
44 Hlybochytska Street (1st floor), Kyiv

Lockout. Opening of the Exhibition of Eastern European Critical Art

Visual Culture Research Center invites you to the opening of the exhibition Lockout, which will take place on Thursday, November 6th at 19:00. Curators: Oksana Briukhovetska (Visual Culture Research Center, Ukraine) and Stanisław Ruksza (Center for Contemporary Art Kronika, Poland).

Exhibition’s title Lockout refers to the work stoppage at the enterprise initiated by the employer – practice, which is forbidden in many countries but Ukraine. Curators consider this phenomenon a metaphor of the social situation in post-socialist world. Works, presented at the exhibition, reveal the hidden, or invisible, reality of labour as one of the most routine and important aspects of human life. Exhibition Lockout includes critical art works from Poland, Russia, Ukraine, and Hungary.

Exhibition participants: Anatoliy Belov (Ukraine), Oksana Briukhovetska (Ukraine), Anna Fabricius (Hungary), Rafał Jakubowicz (Poland), Taras Kamennoy (Ukraine), Lilia Li-mi-yan (Russia), Viktoria Lomasko (Russia), Yulia Mazurova (Russia), Anna Molska (Poland), Laura Pawela (Poland), Valentyna Petrova (Ukraine), Oleksiy Radynski (Ukraine), Mykola Ridnyi (Ukraine), Khaim Sokol (Russia), Iryna Stasyuk (Ukraine), Łukasz Surowiec (Poland), Piotr Wysocki (Poland).

Curators of the exhibition Oksana Briukhovetska and Stanisław Ruksza: “We can see how in Eastern Europe local phenomena correspond to the problems of the neighboring countries. Working with those, who are expelled from the world of wealth, artists make them visible. And this may become the first step towards important changes”.

Within the framework of exhibition meetings with its participants and film screenings will take place:

November 7th, 19:00 – screening of Fortress, Common Places by Mykola Ridnyi.

November 8th, 19:00 – screening of Integration, Referendum, Ukraine Goes To War by Oleksiy Radynski.

Exhibition is open from the 7th until the 30th of November, from 12:00 until 20:00, every day, except Monday.

Information about curators:

Oksana Briukhovetska – artist, curator at Visual Culture Research Center. Graduate of the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, Kyiv. Curator of the exhibitions Childhood. Uncensored and Ukrainian Body at Visual Culture Research Center.

Stanisław Ruksza – curator, art historian. Director of the Center for Contemporary Art Kronika (Bytom, Poland). Author of the numerous publications about contemporary art, coordinator of Political Critique club in Śląsk.

Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC) was founded in 2008 for the purpose of creating the interdisciplinary platform for analysis of the Ukrainian post-Soviet condition at the intersection of art, knowledge, and politics. Since its inception VCRC has organized over 150 debates, conferences and seminars with the participation of Ukrainian and international researchers, as well as nearly 20 art exhibitions.

Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street, 1st floor, Kyiv)

Events will take place with support from: Krytyka Polityczna (Poland), ERSTE Foundation (Austria)

Exhibition Lockout is co-organized by Visual Culture Research Center and Center for Contemporary Art Kronika (Bytom, Poland) with support from Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.

Information partners:

Contacts:

+38 096 492 96 00 (Nataliya Neshevets), +38 093 460 68 81 (Oksana Briukhovetska)
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua

Saturday, November 1st, 2014, 18:00

44 Hlybochytska Street (1st floor), Kyiv

WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE
BUT OUR MAIDANS

Presentation of the 5th issue of Political Critique magazine

Visual Culture Research Center invites you to the presentation of the 5th issue of Political Critique entitled “We Have Nothing To Lose But Our Maidans”, which will take place on Saturday, November 1st at 18:00.

In spite of all the written texts and produced images, we are still far from the complete understanding of the event of Maidan. The 5th issue of Political Critique represents the phenomenon of Maidan, which can be considered as a “visual revolution”, with its own visual means. During the events on Maidan political and revolutionary power of visual image was consistently realized. This edition of Political Critique analyses visual image as the revolutionary instrument on Maidan.

Besides texts the issue includes photos, many of which are being published for the first time, particularly the works by Oleksandr Burlaka, Maksym Dondyuk, Oleksandr Kozachenko, Yevgen Kotenko, Sasha Kurmaz, Viktor Marushchenko, Ivan Melnychuk, Sergiy Morgunov, Tomáš Rafa, Yulia Serdyukova, and Olga Yakymovych. The publication also contains artistic projects related to the issues of political violence: “Controlled incidents” by Mykyta Kadan and “Shelter” by Mykola Ridnyi. Textual part of the magazine consists of articles, which look into Maidan from political, social, visual, and urban perspectives.

The presentation of the issue will take place with the participation of its editors and authors: Oksana Briukhovetska, Vasyl Cherepanyn, Yustyna Kravchuk, Lesia Kulchynska, Oleksiy Radynski. Artists and photographers presented in the issue are also invited.

Political Critique is an international publishing project of the same-name intellectual community in Eastern Europe. Ukrainian edition of Political Critique is aimed at the promotion of critical thinking towards political, social, and cultural processes in Ukraine.

Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC) was founded in 2008 for the purpose of creating the interdisciplinary platform for analysis of the Ukrainian post-Soviet condition at the intersection of art, knowledge, and politics. Since its inception VCRC has organized over 150 debates, conferences and seminars with the participation of Ukrainian and international researchers, as well as nearly 20 art exhibitions.

Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street, 1st floor, Kyiv)
vcrc.org.ua
krytykapolityczna.pl
politicalcritique.org

Admission is free
ATTENTION! Seats are limited
Events will take place with support from: Krytyka Polityczna (Poland), ERSTE Foundation (Austria)

Media partner:

Contacts:
+38 067 442 23 89 (Oleksiy Radynski)
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua

October 24-25, Friday – Saturday
(44 Hlybochytska Street (2nd floor), Kyiv)

Social Mobilization and State Conservatism

Lecture by Alexander Bikbov and presentation of a book “Grammar of the Order”

Visual Culture Research Center invites you to the lecture “Social Mobilization and State Conservatism” by sociologist Alexander Bikbov, and also to the presentation of his book “Grammar of the Order”. In his talks he will analyze the latest civil protests in Russia, taking into consideration analogous events in Spain, Egypt, USA, Greece, and Brazil, as well as present new research discipline – historical sociology of concepts.

On Friday, October 24 at 18:30 Alexander Bikbov will take part in the presentation of the book “Grammar of the Order” (Moscow, 2014). This book is a result of longtime research of the Soviet and Russian societies and a fundamental introduction to the historical sociology of concepts. The author explains Russian social order of the last 20 years through the social cooperation and struggle, which evolve around such concepts as “middle class”, “democracy”, “Russian science”, “Russian nation” etc. The research also deals with Russian protest actions, which started in 2011. Moderation of the presentation – Lesia Kulchynska.

On Saturday, October 25 at 18:30 Alexander Bikbov will deliver a lecture “Social Mobilization and State Conservatism”. Bikbov considers civil protests of 2011 – 2013 in the context of interrelation between violent and non-violent movements: “Forms and political consequences of civil violence, which have called into question the state monopoly for violence, are still poorly analyzed. Even less obvious is a connection between the structure of the civil protest and state violence, which is being implemented not only in the form of “antiterrorist” laws and police prosecution for activism, but also in the incentive form of working conditions, public funding etc. When in European and Latin American protests the critique of state neo-liberalism was clearly articulated, in post-Soviet countries this connection is less visible. However, Russian and maybe Ukrainian experience give many reasons to reveal it”. Moderation of the discussion – Vasyl Cherepanyn.

Alexander Bikbov – sociologist, researcher, editor of Logos magazine, associate member of Centre Maurice-Halbwachs (Paris), deputy director of Centre for Contemporary Philosophy and Social Sciences in Moscow State University. Scientific coordinator of the Independent Research Initiative for the study of mass protest movements in Russia. Personal website: http://a.bikbov.ru/.

Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street, Kyiv)

Admission is free

ATTENTION! Seats are limited

Events will take place with support from: Krytyka Polityczna (Poland), ERSTE Foundation (Austria), Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (Germany).

Contacts:
096 492 96 00 (Nataliya Neshevets)
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua

Saturday, October 18th, 18:00
Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street, Kyiv)

Visual Culture Research Center invites you to the opening of our new premises, which will be held on Saturday, October 18th at the address 44 Hlybochytska Street (1st floor). During the opening, Professor Timothy Snyder (Yale University) will deliver a lecture. Vasyl Cherepanyn, head of Visual Culture Research Center, will make an introductory speech and will also moderate a discussion with the participation of Timothy Snyder.

Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC) was founded in 2008 for the purpose of creating the interdisciplinary platform for analysis of the Ukrainian post Soviet condition at the intersection of art, knowledge, and politics. Since its inception VCRC has organized over 150 debates, conferences and seminars with the participation of Ukrainian and international researchers, as well as nearly 20 art exhibitions.

American historian and publicist Timothy Snyder is one of the major researchers of Central and Eastern European history, as well as the Holocaust. In his lecture “Europe after 1914: Integrations and Disintegrations” Timothy Snyder will consider historical origins of the 2013 – 14 Ukrainian crisis.

Timothy Snyder: “Contemporary European history can be understood as a series of integrations and disintegrations, continuing before our eyes in the present day. 1914 was not the end of an old Europe, but the continuation of a process of decolonization within Europe itself. 1939 was not a collapse of civilization, but the crowning moment of Soviet and Nazi attempts to colonize Europe from within. The project of European integration known as the EU succeeded as traditional maritime colonialism failed. The revolutions of 1989 allowed European states with different histories of colonialism and decolonialism to join in a single project. Today the EU stands challenged by a deliberate policy of disintegration known as Eurasia; as so many times before, Ukraine is in the middle”.

Timothy Snyder is a professor of history at Yale University, author of numerous works in Central and Eastern European history. He writes for International Herald Tribune, New York Review of Books, The New Republic, Eurozine and other periodicals. His books Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of A Habsburg Archduke, and Ukrainian History, Russian Politics, European Future were published in Ukrainian. In 2014 Timothy Snyder has written numerous polemical texts about political and military crisis in Ukraine.

Vasyl Cherepanyn is the director of the Visual Culture Research Center, teacher at the Cultural Studies Department at National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”, PhD in art history. He is an editor of the Ukrainian version of Political Critique magazine.

Working language – English

Admission is free
ATTENTION! Seats are limited

Contacts:
+380674422389 (Oleksiy Radynski)
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua

Visual Culture Research Center is supported by
Erste Foundation and Political Critique

19 October – 30 October
Petrivska 30/34

Visual Culture Research Center presents Un Chien (V)andalou exhibition by Vova Vorotniov and invites you to its opening on October 19, 18.00 at Petrivska 30/34, Kyiv.
Vova Vorotniov is one of the key figures of the Ukrainian post-graffiti scene. Working with subcultural codes and urban environment as public space of visual communication, Vorotniov gradually has expanded his horizon to exploring communication mechanisms of modernity.

The Un Chien (V)andalou exhibition is a homage to the surrealism tradition. Vorotniov uses surrealistic techniques of ready-made and collage for a vandal purpose: he snatches snippets of visual mundanity out of automatism of their routine and imperceptible functioning. Thus tries to expose their veiled symbolic mission as well as impose a new one, articulating different layers of signification. The artist returns formatted fragments to a viewer, modifying, step by step, symbolic mapping of our visual environment. Un Chien (V)andalou is a point of scattered interference, not expression, but ornament that like corrosion, erodes any totality and final meanings, causing anarchy in the field signification.

Vova Vorotniov is a conceptual artist with graffiti background, who continues to play with his “street” experience. Vorotniov explores the semiotic unconscious of everyday visuality, showing iconic structures and visual codes, which define our symbolic practices, but are left unreflected. Experimenting with mechanisms of production and broadcasting of signification in contemporary culture, Vova aims at provoking systemic failures in their concerted functioning.

Unrendered Spaces is a series of exhibitions dedicated to the strategies of perception of the urban and non-urban environment, the possibilities of its exploration by the means of art. Focused on the points of perceptive multiplicity of interpreting the living space, the project aims to play out the political, social and aesthetic zones of tension in its redefinition.

Visual Culture Research Center was founded in 2008 in order to create an interdisciplinary environment for the analysis of Ukraine’s post-Soviet condition in terms of art, knowledge and politics. Since then, VCRC has organized over 150 research and discussion events engaging Ukrainian and foreign scholars, and about 20 art exhibitions.
The exhibition is part of Visual Culture Research Center project Unrendered Spaces and is supported by ERSTE Foundation.

Opening hours: October 19 – October 30, Tuesday to Sunday, 13:00 – 19:00.
Address: Kyiv, Petrivska Str., 30/34.

Contacts:
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua
facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua
http://unrenderedspaces.tumblr.com/
http://vcrc.org.ua/

4th – 12th of October 2014
at Petrivska 30/34, Kyiv

Visual Culture Research Center presents
Killing Time in Web exhibition by Zigendemonic

“This work is about a state of mind that you experience when you are serfing internet way too long, about visual information overdose, about seeing hundreds, or even thousands of images everyday, which travel from real world to our consciousness. In moments of extreme fatigue, after another all day long internet blogs scrolling, you have very bright dreams. If dream deprivation exceeds normal borders – the flow of images appears, even if you close your eyes for a moment. This state is painful but at the same time beautiful. After some time you want to overburn yourself once more, to experience again those pseudo-hallucinations” – Zigendemonic.

«Killing Time in Web» is a hallucination and hypnosis at the same time. It’s not just telling you about overdosing of visual images, it is designed to invoke this overdose, to infect with those hallucinations, to penetrate dreams. Overdosing is just a method, way of producing visions, which tells about something intimate but so familiar to everyone.

Soundtrack by Myztical

Exhibition works on demand October 4 – October 12
Address: Kyiv, Petrivska Str., 34.

zigendemonic.org
vcrc.org.ua

On September 23^rd, Vasyl Cherepanyn, lecturer at the National University ”Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” and head of Visual Culture Research Center and Ukrainian Political Critique, was attacked on Kontraktova Square in Kyiv, next to the university were he works.

A group of unknown men dressed in camouflage paramilitary uniforms attacked Vasyl Cherepanyn in broad daylight in a crowded square in central Kyiv. The police was late to the scene, and the attackers were not arrested. Vasyl Cherepanyn received heavy injuries, including fractures of facial bones. He links this incident to his professional activity.

Vasyl Cherepanyn, PhD of Theory of Art, is a lecturer at the Cultural Studies Department at the National Universilty ”Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”. He is the head of Visual Culture Research Center, and editor of the Political Critique magazine. He is an organizer of numerous scientific conferences, public discussions and art exhibitions. Among the latest events, co-organized by Vasyl Cherepanyn, are the conference Ukraine: Thinking Together, with the participation of Timothy Snyder, Ivan Krastev, Agnieszka Holland, Paul Bermann and other leading intellectuals, and also the series of events during the Open University at Maidan, where he was an activist.

While the military aggression is carried out against Ukraine, aggressive young men in military uniforms carried out an unprecedentedly violent attack on the university lecturer in the center of Kyiv. During the attack, the thugs were accusing Vasyl Cherepanyn of being ‘separatist’, which is totally absurd to anyone aware of his activities. These unfounded and absurd claims, along with accusations of being ‘a communist’, are more and more often used by aggressive ignorants who aim to impose their ideology of hatred upon Ukrainian society, and to suppress any manifestations of critical thought. We demand a quick investigation of this appalling attack. We also demand to investigate the activities of paramilitary groups that use the war in Ukraine as a pretext to justify their own misantropic views.

July 10 – July 24 2014

Visual Culture Research Center presents Island, an exhibition by Ivan Melnychuk and Oleksandr Burlaka and invites you to the opening on July 10, 7 p.m.
at Petrivska 30/34, Kyiv

Fictitious architect, convinced modernist, once a skilled head of one of the units of the Soviet State Designing institute, after the years of inactivity is working on a project of private hacienda that occupies Trukhanov Island – green recreational territory in the centre of Kyiv. Context is neglected, disordered scrap of land that waits for somebody who can afford to turn it into a gem.

This is a real utopia. It is possible here and now. Perturbed unenlightened public reminds a passer-by that looks inside the hospital window and gives advice to the operating surgeon. And your personal opinion is an error which does not affect the result, trifle that can be disregarded to make this fragile utopia true in our rude, chaotic world.

The exhibition is part of Visual Culture Research Center Unrendered Spaces project and is supported by ERSTE Foundation.

Ivan Melnychuk was born 1982 in Lutsk, Ukraine, currently lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine. Architect, artist, member of Melnychuk-Burlaka group, Grupa predmetiv group, Art Workers’ Self-defense Initiative. He specializes in documenting and studying of urban transformations.

Oleksandr Burlaka was born 1982 in Kyiv, Ukraine, where he currently lives and works. He graduated from Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture in 2005 as a Master of architecture. Architect and artist; member of Grupa predmetiv group, Melnychuk-Burlaka group, interdisciplinary curatorial association Hudrada.

Ivan Melnychuk and Oleksandr Burlaka’s practice is a critical reflection on how the architectural heritage and the urban context in the post-Soviet space are transformed in, and sometimes erased from, our collective memory. Trained as architects they question and study the role, ideology and responsibility of architects today.

Unrendered Spaces is an ongoing exhibition project, which includes a series of expositions dedicated to the strategies of perception of environment inside and outside the city, the possibilities of its exploration by the means of art. Concentrated on the points of perceptive conflict, multiple interpretations of the living space, the project aims at playing out the political, social, aesthetic zones of tension by redefining it.

Visual Culture Research Center is a platform for collaboration of artists, activists and academics founded in Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in 2008. Since its inception VCRC had organized over 150 debates, conferences and research seminars, nearly 20 exhibitions and a series of street protest actions.

Opening hours: July 10 – July 24, Tuesday to Sunday, 3 p.m. – 7 p.m. 
Address: Kyiv, 34, Petrivska St.

http://unrenderedspaces.tumblr.com/
http://vcrc.org.ua/

STOP CENSORSHIP! 2nd International Contest is launched

2nd International contest “Stop censorship! Citizens for free countries” accept works till the beginning of May, 2014. This year contest theme is – “Fight – You’ll Win!”.

The idea of ​​contest creating came at the meeting of activists and journalists movement “Stop Censorship!” in June 2010. In 2011 First International Contest “Stop Censorship” took place. It was submitted with 27 posters, 310 slogans, 188 poems and 69 esseys. Contest web site was visited by 46 thousands visitors from 83 countries.

In 2014, activists of the NGO “Center UA» decided to hold the contest annually.

Works for the contest are accepted in five categories: image, poem, slogan, essey, other formats. Works can be submitted in Ukrainian, Russian and English.

Anyone can participate the contest reardless of age, education and citizenship. Not a single political party is related to the contest organization. This contest is a tool for self organization of civil society. It’s main go is to initiate a broad social discussion on protection of freedom of speech, political and artistic censorship.

Contest geography is global as protection of human rights, freedom of access to information and fight against censorship are the fundamental freedoms and it’s relevant to Ukraine as well as for any young democratic country.

Submissions will be accepted from May 1 to June 5, 2014 (inclusive). Work of public jury begins May 1, 2014 and ends June 10. That means that after submission deadline internet users would be able to vote during five extra days. According to the public voting results in each category (image, poem, slogan, essay, other formats)the winner is the work with the highest number of votes.

In June 11, 2014 meeting of jury of expers will take place where the winners would be announced. In awarding ceremony for the winners, as well as exhibition of the best works in one of the public spaces in Kiev will hold in June 24, 2014. Public campaign, which aims to promote works of the winners of the contest begins right after completion of the contest.

http://www.stop-censorship.net/eng/
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Contacs: cenzuri.stop@gmail.com,
0 50 494 58 30