The Kyiv International
Kyiv Biennial 2017

October 20 – November 26, 2017

Visual Culture Research Center presents The Kyiv International – Kyiv Biennial 2017, an international forum for art and knowledge to take place in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The Kyiv International – Kyiv Biennial 2017 project aims to explore and reveal the emancipatory potential of the idea of the political International, which emerged in Europe. Today, in the age of structural crisis of global institutions — when the maintenance of a transnational status quo is constructed from violated borders, peripheral wars, and the emergence of new walls and conflicts — the idea of cross-border unity and international solidarity is of utmost urgency for the future survival of Europe.

The Kyiv International − Kyiv Biennial 2017 will integrate art projects with a number of institutional collaborations to create agoras for debate. A program of free thematic public events will also address the political, social, economic, and historical circumstances in today’s Ukraine and Europe, as well as on a global scale.

The Kyiv International – Kyiv Biennial 2017 begins on October 20 with the opening of the exhibition “The Festivities Are Cancelled!” by Hudrada curatorial group (Ukraine) in the “UFO” building of the Institute of Scientific, Technical, and Economic Information. The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of revolution and the phenomenon of censorship. The second part of the exhibition will open in the Pavlo Tychyna Literary-Memorial Museum-Apartment, continuing the statement with a talk about Soviet censorship and its traces within current social practices.

In the “Dead Souls” exhibition that will be on view at Visual Culture Research Center from October 21 Marina Naprushkina (Germany) presents the key provisions within EU asylum and migration policy, which often lead to serious economic and social inequalities – the borders are so sealed, in fact, that asylum seekers are oftentimes hardly able to reach “the safe shore.” Oliver Ressler (Austria) will focus on struggles to obtain citizenship while, at the same time, questioning the implicitly exclusionary nature of the concept. He will also investigate the rare case of occupied factories in which the purpose of these organized struggles is to bring production under workers’ control.

Exhibition “Market” curated by Hanna Tsyba (VCRC, Ukraine) will open on October 27 at the Kyiv Zhytniy Market, built in 1980 in the so-called International style. The purpose of the “Market” project is to draw attention to the late modernist architecture in Kyiv.

“Dance, Dance, Dance” exhibition curated by Serge Klymko (VCRC, Ukraine) will track down the image of a rave, buried in the late 90s, which has recently been resurrected in Kyiv. Kyiv is proclaimed to be one of its central monasteries, having been discovered by Western pilgrims amid a riot, the square, democracy, and all else that lies North of the Wall. The exhibition that will be on view at BURSA GALLERY from November 10 takes a look at the post-Soviet dance scene as a luminous symptom of social and political processes.

A series of experimental music performances will engage local and international artists working at the intersection of several genres, deconstructing acoustic perception and different means of musical production. The events will be hosted at the Institute of Scientific, Technical, and Economic Information concert hall – itself a late modernist masterpiece, built to synthesize acoustic and visual perception in the arts.

An eventful film program is planned within the framework of The Kyiv International – Kyiv Biennial 2017. Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre will present a film series entitled, “Ukrainian Revolutionary Cinema Avant-Garde.” The series includes such films as “Arsenal” (1929) by Oleksandr Dovzhenko, “In Spring” (1929) by Mikhail Kaufman, “The Eleventh Year” (1927) by Dzyga Vertov, “Self-Seeker” (1928) by Mykola Shpykovskyi, and “Perekop” (1929) by Ivan Kavaleridze. The screening of “No! No! No!” film and premiere of “Armed and Dangerous” series by Ukrainian artist and film maker Mykola Ridnyi will also take place, as well as an artist’s talk by Artur Żmijewski and a screening of his film “Glimpse.”

Lectures, Panel Discussions, Seminars and Workshops led by well-known historians, philosophers, economists, and cultural practitioners will converge upon artistic and intellectual pursuits for critical answers to common concerns. Mikhail Ryklin (Germany) will elaborate on the fiasco of world revolution. Paul Chaney will present his project “Donetsk Syndrome Diagrammatic.” Asena Günal and Özlem Altunok (Turkey) will talk about art censorship and resistance experiences in Turkey. Phil Collins will introduce his contribution to this year’s Manchester International Festival, consisting of relocating a 1970 statue of Friedrich Engels from a village in Ukraine—removed from public view as part of the process of decommunization—to the center of Manchester where it was installed as a permanent monument.

Several book presentations will take place at The Kyiv International – Kyiv Biennial 2017. In particular, the Ukrainian translation of “Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable?” by Judith Butler will be presented (with Kateryna Mishchenko, Yustyna Kravchuk and Kateryna Sergatskova), as well as the Ukrainian translation of “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” by Timothy Snyder (with Kateryna Mishchenko and Angelina Kariakina).

An experimental Radio International platform will take place during the Biennial. Different voices will be invited to meet and communicate their collective and personal experiences, marked by the themes and discussions taking place at the Kyiv biennial on a national and international scale. Radio International will host a number of lectures, workshops and performances dedicated to the problems of hearing and speech in today’s world.

The full program of events can be found in the attachment, website, and social networks:

http://vcrc.org.ua/en/international/program/facebook

Locations:

Main Site: Institute of Scientific, Technical and Economic Information (“UFO”, 180 Antonovycha St., metro Lybidska).

Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska St., trams #14, #18 from metro Kontraktova Ploshcha).

Zhytniy Market (16 Verkhniy Val St., metro Kontraktova Ploshcha).

BURSA GALLERY (11-B Kostyantynivska St., metro Kontraktova Ploshcha).

Pavlo Tychyna Literary-Memorial Museum-Apartment (5 Tereshchenkivska St., ap. 1, 3, metro Teatralna).

Artists’ Studios at 33 Soshenko (33 Soshenko St.,trolley bus #18 from metro Maidan Nezalezhnosti).

Organized by Visual Culture Research Center (Kyiv, Ukraine).

Institutional Partners: Avtonomi Akadimia (Athens, Greece), BURSA Gallery (Kyiv, Ukraine), Columbia Global Centers | Paris (France), DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program (Berlin, Germany), De Balie (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), Depo (Istanbul, Turkey), Depot (Vienna, Austria), documenta 14 (Athens/Kassel, Greece/Germany), European Alternatives (Paris, France), Forum Transregionale Studien (Berlin, Germany), Hromadske TV (Kyiv, Ukraine), Institute for Human Sciences (Vienna, Austria), Medusa Books (Kyiv, Ukraine), National Oleksandr Dovzhenko Center (Kyiv, Ukraine), Political Critique (Warsaw, Poland), Shedhalle (Zurich, Switzerland), Studio 14 (Athens, Greece), Transeuropa Festival 2017 (Madrid, Spain), tranzit.cz (Prague, Czech Republic).

Emblem and biennial design: Experimental Jetset (Amsterdam, the Netherlands).

Partners: British Council / Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, ERSTE Foundation, European Cultural Foundation, International Renaissance Foundation, Robert Bosch Foundation.

Contacts:

+ 38 093 0358910, [email protected] Ganna Tsyba
+ 38 097 4369899, [email protected] Yustyna Kravchuk
+ 38 093168 38 62, [email protected] Tania Mala

VCRC

[email protected]