ARTIFICIAL PAIN 02/18/2021 - 03/02/2021

"Artificial Pain" exhibition of contemporary Ukrainian artists is opening on February 18 at 18:00 in the "YermilovCentre" Centre of Contemporary Art. This project was shown in Poland at the "Signs of the Times" Centre of Contemporary Art in Torun from April to September 2020.

The Artificial Pain project responds to current problems and situations that constitute Ukraine as a country, as a people, as a geopolitical point on the world map.

The concept of the exhibition is based on the inevitable determinism of the present by past decisions, the duration of some situations and the dynamic development of others.

In Polish, "art" sounds like "shtuka". In Ukrainian "shtuchne" ("artificial") is what is created by man, as well as what can be false, inanimate. However, the artist eliminates the threat of the latter with his ability to clearly articulate in his work what for others remains undefined living material, and maintains a connection with the living painful nerve of reality.

Natalia Ivanova, curator of the exhibition and director of the YermilovCentre says: «Artistic reflection today is aimed at reflecting the fragile situation of Ukrainian society, where there is a defiant annexation of Crimea, separatist demonstrations in Donbass, external intervention in the East and ultra-government activism. These are topics that hurt and will hurt, even though in six years we have somehow "come to terms" with a certain state of affairs, learned to live with it, we do not react so violently and emotionally. But there are artists, whose works bring us back to these events from time to time, attract our attention again, remind us that it hurts again… ».

According to the concept of the exhibition, it is the artist's voice that is able to articulate the signs of the times: «The artist feels the social air that permeates everything, the social currents that saturate the information space. He/she is a medium, a prognosticator, a visionary. His/her artistic response to reality can be aggressive, melancholic, escapist, etc. - one that responds to the needs of the time, is able to express its symptoms, carves out his pain».

The works are selected as a kaleidoscope of experiences and form a tense field of experiences aimed at dialogue or self-deepening: «Contemporary Ukrainian art is not limited to topics of self-identification on the political background of history.<…> Experiments and discoveries are smelting new polydiscursive, neomythological forms».

One of the missions of the project is to support the intercultural dialogue between Ukraine and Poland, which have some common historical experience and history. «YermilovCentre and the Centre of Contemporary Art "Signs of the Times" in Torun (Poland) have many years of shared experience. We presented Polish art from the collection of the Centre of Contemporary Art "Signs of the Times" at YermilovCentre in 2017. Then, we worked on the project "Artificial Pain" with Krzysztof Bialowicz, and Polish audiences had the opportunity to see Ukrainian contemporary art from April to September 2020. Artists' works returned to KharkivIn November and now we are happy to present this project at YermilovCentre», - Natalia Ivanova said.

Exhibitors: Gera Artemova, Yuri Vyshnyakov, Artem Volokitin, Kostiantyn Zorkin, Taras Kamennoy, Vitalii Kokhan, Vladyslav Krasnoshchek, Sergei Lebedinsky, Bella Logacheva, Tatiana Malinovskaya, Mykola Matsenko, Roman Mykhailov, Roman Minin, NATSPROM (Oleg Tistol, Mykola Matsenko), Mykola Nosok, Yuliia Po, Roman Pyatkovka, Daniil Revkovskiy and Andriy Rachynskiy, Viktor Sydorenko, Oksana Solop, Vladyslav Yudin

Curators: Krzysztof Bialowicz, Natalia Ivanova

Architect of the exposition: Kostiantyn Zorkin

Project partner: ABRAMOVYCH.ART, Stedley Art Foundation