A discussion and music action by “Krytyka Polityczna”

May, 2, 2012, 7 pm

Debate with Stephane Amsellem, Vasyl Cherepanyn, Paolo Do, Raimar Stange and Agnieszka Tarasiuk Moderated by Igor Stokfiszewski

Moderated by Igor Stokfiszewski

A discussion on contemporary forms of censorship of art, which considers the tensions between freedom of speech, shared values, economic factors, political expectations towards culture, political correctness as a practice of masking social issues, and real social struggles.

From 9 pm a music action:
Marcin Masecki – piano
Candelaria Saenz Valiente – vocals

Stephane Amsellem, #Occupy Geneva, Switzerland
Vasyl Cherepanyn, Visual Culture Research Center, Ukraine
Paolo Do, ESC Atelier Autogestito, Italy
Raimar Stange, art critic, Germany
Igor Stokfiszewski, Krytyka Polityczna, Poland
Agnieszka Tarasiuk, Residential Arts Centre in Wigry, Poland

KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Auguststr. 69, Berlin
http://www.berlinbiennale.de/
http://vcrc.org.ua/
http://www.krytykapolityczna.pl/

photographs by Yevgenia Belorusets
dedicated to the everyday lives of LGBT families in Ukraine

3rd of May 2012 at 18:00

The exhibition will run from the 3rd to the 20th of May 2012 at the following address:

Visual Culture Research Center in Kyiv (26 Kostyantynivska St., “Zhovten” Cinema, Metro: Kontraktova Ploscha)

Working hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 12:00-21:00

Within the framework of the project of the Visual Culture Research Center entitled: “Image in the Dark: Contemporary Critical Photography”, which is part of the parallel program of the 1st Kyiv International Biennale of Contemporary Art ARSENALE 2012, we invite you to attend the opening of the exhibition by Ukrainian photographer and artist Yevgenia Belorusets – “A Room of My Own”. The exhibition organisers are also proud to announce a performance by Ukrainian artist Alevtyna Kakhidze to take place on the opening night, entitled: “On the subject of gender discrepancies among inhabitants of the planet Geten”

This exhibition is dedicated to the everyday lives of Ukrainian LGBT and Queer families, who have to overcome harassment and threats of violence on a daily basis because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Queer is a political position. It offers an alternative to common binary oppositions within society, such as male vs. female, homosexual vs. heterosexual, or norms vs. aberrations. It also rejects marginalisation, social exclusion and discrimination on the basis of gender or sexual orientation.

“A Room of My Own” consists of a series of documentary photographic portraits and testimonies by the stars of this project, who the artist met during trips to various cities across Ukraine.

Through fragmented sketches of domestic life, with all its joys and pains, Yevgenia Belorusets and the heroes and heroines of her project tell their personal stories, affording us a brief glimpse of what lies behind the thick curtain which ordinarily separates their private lives from their public identities.

Silence surrounding the subject of homosexuality both enforces discipline upon and discriminates against the everyday reality of queer people and queer families. Society’s judgement splits people into two camps according to which two sexes people choose to form a family. There are those who can speak about their personal lives, and those who are forbidden to speak it aloud. As a result, one group of people are accorded greater value and relevance simply because of a mythological idea of what constitutes “normality” – a standardisation of human life.

The photographer’s artistic and political intention is to make the invisible visible. To do this, she uses neutral photo-portraits and dialogue with interested parties. Her goal – to reveal that which is hidden – involves overcoming alienation in order to uncover a closed-off world where the participants in this project have found themselves against their will.

The heroes and heroines of “A Room of My Own” agreed to talk about their everyday lives without embellishment, despite the risk they face of being publicly judged.

Texts accompanying pictures, which the photographer wrote down based on interviews with them, are an integral part of the exhibition.

An important element of Yevgenia Belorusets’ artistic statement is her intention to deconstruct negative imagery associated with transgender and homosexual people, which is built on stereotypes and on a desire not to know more about the lives of queer people.

Unfortunately, xenophobia, homophobia and transphobia are widespread in Ukraine. These attitudes impose severe limitations on the personal freedoms of homosexual and transsexual people.

This type of social exclusion can and should be stopped. All of us are equally responsible for ensuring that this happens.

The exhibition will include visual material about a demonstration called “Shut it down and archive it!” (Zakryvay i archivuy!), which took place in protest against censorship of the work of the Visual Culture Research Center at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and the Center’s eventual closure by the Executive Board of the University. It will also include work made especially for this demonstration by architect Oleksandr Burlaka.

Curator: Nataliya Tchermalykh

Designer: Aleksandr Burlaka

The exhibition will run from the 3rd to the 20th of May 2012 at the following address:

Visual Culture Research Center in Kyiv (26 Kostyantynivska St., “Zhovten” Cinema, Metro: Kontraktova Ploscha)

Working hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 12:00-21:00

Organisers and Partners: Visual Culture Research Center, Insight NGO, Prostory Journal for Literature and Arts, Heinrich Böll Foundation.

www.belorusets.com

http://vcrc.org.ua

http://www.insight-ukraine.org.ua/

http://www.prostory.net.ua/

http://www.boell.org.ua/web/40.html

“A Room of My Own” in the media::

http://www.openspace.ru/art/events/details/35840/

http://www.openspace.ru/news/details/35279/

http://www.artukraine.com.ua/articles/867.html?fb_ref=.T2m6YoGzILc.like&fb_source=profile_oneline

http://zn.ua/CULTURE/tsvk_na_minnom_pole_mogilyanki-99684.html

Contacts for additional information:

+38 (0) 975948013 Yevgenia Belorusets

+38 (0) 672327475 Nataliya Tchermalykh

Opening of the Visual Culture Research Center at “Zhovten” Cinema

Solidarity Action of the 7th Berlin Biennale

April 26, 2012, 6 p.m.

Visual Culture Research Center (26 Kostyantynivska St., “Zhovten” Cinema, Kyiv)

On Thursday, April 26th at 6 p.m. the Visual Culture Research Center will open in the new premises at “Zhovten” (“October”) Cinema. The space for the combination of art, knowledge and politics will now be located at one of the oldest cinemas in Kyiv, whose name and history embody the idea of visual culture as education and emancipation. The format for the presentation of the VCRC will be the action of solidarity of the 7th Berlin Biennale, which will open on the same day at KunstWerke Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin).

“Forget Fear” is the slogan of the 7th Berlin Biennale, curated by Artur Żmijewski, Polish artist and art director of the Political Critique magazine. “Forget Fear” is also the name for a discussion on political engagement of intellectuals and artists with the participation of VCRC activists and colleagues that will take place during the VCRC opening event. The action will also include screening of films from the Biennale Breaking the News special project.

Participants: Yevgenia Belorusets, Andriy Bondar, Olga Bryukhovetska, Denys Gorbach, Dmytro Gorbachov, Lyudmyla Gordeladze, Pavlo Gudimov, Olga Zhuk, Nikita Kadan, Yevhen Karas, Serhiy Kutniy, Oleksandr Ivashyna, Alisa Lozhkina, Roksolana Mashkova, Andriy Mokrousov, Nadiya Parfan, Oleksandr Roytburd, Anastasiya Riabchuk, Mykhaylo Sobutsky, Oleksandr Soloviov, Volodymyr Chemerys, Vasyl Cherepanyn.

Visual Culture Research Center was founded in 2008 at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy with the aim of creating an interdisciplinary environment for the analysis of the post-Soviet situation of Ukraine on the intersection of art, knowledge and politics. The Center since has conducted 120 scientific events and discussions with the participation of scientists from Ukraine and abroad, and 20 art exhibitions. In March 2012, VCRC was turned out of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, which was the result of the university administration’s ideological censorship.

The 7th Berlin Biennale curators team: “The main issue in question at the 7th Berlin Biennale is the profound results produced by art. Artistic imagination is not always ready for creating such effects. As it is in politics, in art it is better to work as a collective than alone. That is why we decided to propose to art institutions that deal with similar questions to make their own research and present them within the Berlin Biennale. We name these actions and their results “the solidarity actions”. Instead of thinking of the competition we focus on the collaboration within a common horizon. There is a lack of solidarity in the art world, therefore, we take a step to change it.”

Breaking the News is a special project at the 7th Berlin Biennale, which is aimed at combining the means of art and journalism. Artists and activists from different countries create a common media platform for the production and spreading of films dedicated to current social protests in their countries. Films by media collectives Mosireen (Egypt) and Filmpiraten (Germany), as well as by Zafeiris Haiditis (Greece), Lukasz Konopa (UK), Thomas Rafa (Slovakia/USA), Oleksiy Radynski (Ukraine), David Reeb (Palestine), David Rych (Germany) will be screened at the VCRC opening event. “It is not enough to make political films, films must also be made politically.”

April 6-8, 2012

Venue: MYSTETSKYI ARSENAL, KYIV (Lavrska street 10-12)

Participants: Zygmunt Bauman, Boris Buden, Ilya Budraitskis, Vasyl Cherepanyn, Sebastian Cichocki, Maria Hlavajova, Aleksandra Jasinska-Kania, Artem Magun, Oleksiy Radynski, Gerald Raunig, Slawomir Sierakowski, Oksana Timofeeva

Art is quite comfortable with the idea of the end of art. But how can art deal with the end of the world?

The popular fantasy of the end of the universe coming in 2012 has recently acquired unexpected political significance. There is a growing conviction that the world as we know it should end. In fact, the resounding crash of global financial capitalism and spectacular manifestations of discontent all over the world are telling us that the world of unrestrained consumption is already on its deathbed. Why wait passively until the system decomposes by itself – until “the world ends”? Why not start inventing a new world, the one that will succeed the current apocalypse?

Program

Friday, April 6

18.00 – Introduction (Ekaterina Degot, Natalia Zabolotna)

18.30 – Living in the Interregnum. Keynote speech by Zygmunt Bauman

20.00 – discussion with Zygmunt Bauman, Vasyl Cherepanyn and Slawomir Sierakowski

Saturday, April 7

Session 1

11.00 – Boris Buden. Art After the End of Society

12.00 – Sebastian Cichocki. Dematerialization / Annihilation of Art in the 1960ies and What We Can Learn from It

13.00 – Maria Hlavajova. To Undo Contemporary Art: Some Interim Speculations from “former West”

14.00 – panel discussion (moderated by Ekaterina Degot)

Session 2

17.00 – The End of the World in Current Sociological Debates. Panel discussion with Zygmunt Bauman, Boris Buden, Aleksandra Kania, Slawomir Sierakowski. Moderated by Vasyl Cherepanyn

Sunday, April 8

Session 3

11.00 – Gerald Raunig. The Art of Existence and Molecular Revolution

12.00 – Oksana Timofeeva. Artistic Beast

13.00 – panel discussion (moderated by Ekaterina Degot)

Session 4

15.00 – Ilya Budraitskis. When Does the History of Revolution Start?

16.00 – Artem Magun. The Sense of Perestroika and Its Contemporary Meaning

17.00 – panel discussion (moderated by Oleksiy Radynski)

Session 5

18.00 – Vasyl Cherepanyn. Art, Knowledge and Politics after the End of the World

19.00 – After the Artistic Freedom. Panel discussion with Ilya Budraitskis, Vasyl Cherepanyn, Lesya Kulchynska, Oleksiy Radynski, Gerald Raunig, Oksana Timofeeva. Moderated by Ekaterina Degot.

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