Dnipropetrovsk. Ya Gallery Art Center

Sun of the Poor. R.E.P.

22.01.2013 – 07.03.2013

The exhibition is largely inspired by the situation of Dnipropetrovsk itself, where the gaps between the public space that is being ruined and energetic and ambitious private initiatives, between the cracks filled with trash, voids of community-derelict and the shining "presents to the city" from its prosperous citizens are very noticeable.

Exhibition Dnipropetrovsk Ya Gallery Art Center

Ksenia Hnylytska/ Nikita Kadan / Zhanna Kadyrova / Volodymyr Kuznetsov / Lada Nakonechna / Lesia Khomenko

From the very beginning of its collaborative activities at the end of 2004 the R.E.P. Group turned to diagnose the state of Ukrainian society. The artists' spheres of interest were Maydan's "democratic rituals" of the Orange Revolution and the social apathy of the following period, official patriotic representation and the "blind zones" of the impoverished citizens' survival, labor migration and land sales, simultaneous pursuit of cultural isolation and desire to superficially mimic the best "world's achievements".

In an attempt to detect a common feature in numerous video works, street actions, installations, performances, wall paintings, the artists realized over the part eight years - a vector uniting various forms - we find the repeated act of tearing the post-Soviet decoration. This decoration is Potiomkin village, "Eurorenovation", "gifts" from the authorities and capital to society - features extreme volatility, economy of bearing structures, brevity of existence. Inconsistency of representation and the insides becomes a key characteristic of Ukrainian life.

Speaking of the method that unites the Group's works of different years, other that collective authorship and departure from any form of personalizing each participant's contribution to the collaborative work, most of R.E.P. projects are serial in nature. Such projects as "Patriotism", "Mediators", "Eurorenovation" are drawn through the years, consistently realized in multiple parts-issues in different countries. This fundamentality, longevity and accentuated program character of the work, in a way, opposes the "Eurorenovation's" non-historical conditions, created by the dependent, catching up development of Ukrainian society and, consequently, cultural and artistic situation.

Exhibition "Sun of the Poor" includes documentation of actions and video-works from 2005-2012, as well as new installations, created specifically for Dnipropetrovsk. The exhibition is largely inspired by the situation of the city itself, where the gaps between the public space that is being ruined and energetic and ambitious private initiatives, between the cracks filled with trash, voids of community-derelict and the shining "presents to the city" from its prosperous citizens are very noticeable - the city where prosperity disputes whether poverty is eligible for visibility, while being its immediate neighbor.