Who plays contemporary art in Ukraine. Selected changes in infrastructure and artistic practices in the last two decades.
In the 1990s not many institutions in Ukraine aspired to present contemporary art. This function was undertaken by foreign entities such as the Soros Centre for Contemporary Art in Kiev and Odessa or private Marat Guelman Gallery in Kiev. In the following decade it became a point of interest not only for wealthy people such as Viktor Pinchuk, Rinat Akhmetov, or locally Lyubov Popova in Donetsk. A number of significant initiatives were born in the environment of artists themselves: Hudrada, Lab garage; among students of academies and universities: the famous Visual Culture Research Centre; as well as within the already existing city institutions: the Kharkiv City Art Gallery; or even within the institutions functioning under the secretariat of the Ukrainian president himself: Mystetskyi Arsenal. At the same time I would like to inquire about the search for genealogy and new role of artists in society based on the selected artistic projects.
Anna Łazar – MA in Polish philology, MA in Ukrainian philology at Warsaw University; studied history of art for five years in the Institute of History of Art at Warsaw University; graduate of PhD studies in the Institute of Slavic Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences. In the years 2003-2007 co-author of the art magazine Sekcja. Curator of the following exhibitions: Hmm… wystawa problemowa [Hmm... A Problem Exhibition] together with Karol Sienkiewicz, Białoruskie perspektywy [Belarusian perspectives], Podróż na wschód [Journey to the East] together with Monika Szewczyk. Works in the Polish Institute in Kiev.
