exhibition

Artists: Artem Volokitin, Bella Logachova, Bohdan Lokatyr, Daniil Revkovskyi / Andrii Rachynskyi, Eliza Mamardashivli, Emil Mamedov, Kostiantyn Lyzogub, Konstantin Zorkin, Liliia Petrova, Oleh Kalashnik, Oleksandr Ridnyi, Oleksii Borysov, Oleksii Yalovega, Olia Fedorova, Pavlo Makov, Taras Kamennoi, Vitalii Kokhan, Vladyslav Krasnoshchok, Vladyslav Yudin.

A drastic change has occurred in the lives of Ukrainian artists on 24^th February 2002. Since then, they have been continuously coping with the atrocities of war, living a life of danger, anxiety and insecurity. They have been trying to find a way to go on in extreme conditions unimaginable – which will hopefully never change – to artists from other countries.

They are nevertheless aware of the significant role and position art has to take in a crisis sparked off by war. For this reason, they do all they can to create and relate, to depict the horror of war, oppression as well as huge determination through art. We, on our part, should bring Ukrainian art to light and promote it more than ever before.

Artworks by 20 artists will be displayed at the exhibition TEAM. Ukrainian Art in Wartime. The show is curated by Natalia Ivanova, Director of the Yermilov Centre Gallery in Kharkiv. The idea behind it is to present artworks produced during Russian aggression, at the ART KUZEMIN residency in a village by Kharkiv.

The exhibition will include art objects, sculptures, films, photographs, prints and paintings. The CoCA Znaki Czasu curator is Prof Krzysztof Białowicz. The Team exhibition is another event within the framework of the collaboration between CoCA Znaki Czasu in Toruń and the Yermilov Centre Gallery in Kharkiv, commenced in 2020 with the show Artificial Pain – Contemporary Ukrainian Art.

From the curator, Natalia Ivanova:

The suffering inflicted on Ukrainian cities revealed to us that a country is made up of people, not buildings. As long as people are alive, they will be able to rebuild what has been destroyed, to restore life and comfort. The task of those who make art is to reconstruct what remains unseen, what gives us the toughness to resist evil. The soul of towns and villages, the soul of the country is in the people who lived, are and will be living there.

Grouped in the Team project are artists who have firmly supported the spirit of the Ukrainian nation.

Most of the presented artworks were created last year, despite the devastation and chaos, apprehension and fear. The first display took place in Kharkiv after a massive missile attack when the city was cut off from heating, electricity and water.

For Ukrainian public, especially in war-stricken cities, art exhibitions are very important, producing an uplifting effect and offering us hope for the future, rekindling emotions numbed by the war.

In other countries Ukrainian art is perceived as a testimony to human persistence – it provides a picture of terrifying events that occur in our times and require people to gather enormous strength just to go on living. People unite to fight, help and create. This is why it is crucial to act together, to develop societies able to look into the future and work for it now.

The title of the project references military language and speaks of people uniting for a common cause, where every individual person is irreplaceable and everyone is part of a whole.

Natalia Ivanova

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