Under the patronage of the Embassy of France in Ukraine
In cooperation with the French Institute in Ukraine
As part of the French Spring in Ukraine
Participants: La cellule (Becquemin & Sagot),Mykyta Kravtsov
Curated by Pavlo Gudimov
Commissioner - Oleksandr Kamenets
Archive is the second project of the two-year program MEMORANDUM organized by Pavlo Gudimov's Ya Gallery art center aimed at the exchange of experience between Ukrainian and French artists.
Launched last year with the project Memoria (from Latin - memory, reminiscence), program MEMORANDUM has already shown collaborative work of the artists Oleg Gryshchenko, Emmanuelle Castellan and Kirill Ukolov. Its initial idea was the "Black Square" by Kazimir Malevich.
This year, interpretations of the themes of the past will be presented by French artists from the group "La cellule" - Stephanie Sagot and Emmanuelle Becquemin, selected by the Toulouse cultural center "Espace Croix Baragnon". Also, young Ukrainian painter Mykyta Kravtsov will present his original interpretation of the medieval collection of zoological articles "Bestiary", using painting and photography.
In the project of the MEMORANDUM program artists of "La cellule" group regard the concept of the archive in connection to the theme of desire and its modern manifestations - through sculpture, installation and performance. These instruments allow them to experiment with the mechanisms of desire between Eros and Thanatos. They use the fragile moments when everything can stagger, end and disappear. Considering the absurd a means to get away with anything, the authors create works that deviate from the given trajectory. This is a relative ease that conceals bitter reality.
In the modern interpretation of the collection "Bestiary" Ukrainian artist Mykyta Kravtsov uses nude in order to avoid association to a certain time and thus focus on the relevance of the medieval stories today. Despite the fact that these stories sometimes seem comical and even absurd, their Christian interpretation makes it possible to develop and reconsider their meanings.