August 23 - September 11, 2011 the city of Kiev.The new art of the new country 1991-2011at the National Cultural and Arts and Museum Complex "Mystetsky Arsenal"the city of Kiev
INDEPENDENT represents Ukraine’s first large-scale endeavor to map the phenomenon of Ukrainian contemporary art—a movement born in tandem with the new nation.
The exposition is structured around specific thematic clusters, each characterizing the pervasive phenomena of Ukrainian contemporary art that emerged as artists sought a new visual language, problematic, and identity over the course of two decades:
REALITY VS. PHANTASM: A defining trait of Ukrainian contemporary art, wherein reality is invariably chimeric, rendered with an otherworldly affect or latent subtext.
DIALOGUE WITH THE SCREEN: Exploring the impact on the figurative thinking of artists as the established pictorial plane was compelled to absorb the world's new media realities—a shift reflected in a range of video works, photography, performance art, and painting itself.
SOCIAL GAZE / POLITICAL REAGENT: A reflection of the crucial social and political realities to which artists reacted between 1991 and 2011.
HISTORY AND MYTH: A presentation of "new mythologies" and the reinterpretation of history.
BEYOND THE LIMITS: Striking phenomena situated outside the conventional artistic system.
INDEPENDENT will feature approximately 125 authors. The project’s exposition will occupy the first floor of the Mystetskyi Arsenal, spanning a total area of 10,000 square meters. Upon visiting the exhibition, the viewer will gain a holistic understanding of contemporary Ukrainian art. The show will present all characteristic forms, genres, and technologies that have been, and remain, within the arsenal of Ukrainian contemporary art.
The INDEPENDENT project has been included in the special program of the Fourth Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art.