Alevtina Kakhidze (Ukraine) – Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art

Aleftyna Kachidze

born 1973, Ukrainian artist. She has presented her works at (among others): IASPIS in Stockholm, the Centre for Contemporary Art in Kiev, the National Museum in Moscow and the Nicolaj Art Center in Copenhagen. She runs an autonomous artistic residency at her home in Muzychi on the outskirts of Kiev. Alevtina Kakchidze is the laureate of the first edition of the Casimir Malevich prize. www.alevtinakakhidze.com

• 10/03/2010 7:00 p.m. 

  • I can walk your dog

    • ​Lecture–performance about spousal negotiations between life and art, organized as a part of a seminar by Joanna Warsza in the NOT-THEATER cycle

  •  

• 15/05/2010, Laboratorium and terrace of the Qchnia Artystyczna restaurant

  • Marriage negotiation​

    • If you step further and further away from a shop window, the shiny goods displayed on the shelves become stars, and stars as you know, belong to everyone, to you and to no one – 300 metres of the fabric with such a text and drawings representing logotypes of the most expensive and the best recognizable worldwide brands will be manufactured in one of the factories of Łódź, inspired by Alevtina Kakhidze herself.

  • One will be able to receive fragments of the fabric for free during the event at the CCA on May 15, just by responding to the artist’s questions and requirements. Kakhidze views consumer reality with a critical eye, at the same time understanding the seductive mechanisms that characterise it. The object of analysis in the works and actions of the artist are consumer goods and their mechanisms of enticement at the meeting point of the eastern and western models of capitalistic transformation, everyday life and the practice of contemporary art.
    • Alevtina in recreating reality goes one step further. In Warsaw she initiated a series of performative actions related to the topic of marriage negotiation.
  • The artist, wife of engineer and developer Volodymyr Babyuk has led such everyday negotiations with her husband for the last 13 years. Her frequent foreign travels and sojourns at artistic residencies were becoming unbearable for Vova, so they mutually decided to create a centre for artistic residencies in the garden of their big house on the outskirts of Kiev. "Now 'the world' will come to you" - suggested her husband. There are hardly any objects in their new home: the chairs by Philippe Starck or Cindy Scherman's photographs have been replaced with copies sketched by the artist. Recently Alevtina and Vova have signed a marital contract that resolves the division of wealth in the event of their divorce. Subject to it the huge house with three bedrooms and three bathrooms, all its furnishings, two cars and four dogs turn out to be worth less than the artist's set of drawings depicting objects of reverie: luxury goods, antiques and works of art - worth as much as their prototypes.
    • In two performances Alevtina together with her husband will present the history of her marriage and many year long negotiations with her husband regarding the importance and interpretation of art and the creation of added value. The project will be simultaneously translated from Russian.
  • Curator: Ika Sienkiewicz-Nowacka