A Space of One’s Own

The Research Platform of the PinchukArtCentre presents a group exhibition A Space of One’s Own, which offers one possible perspective on the history of Ukrainian art and the place of women in it by emphasizing the preeminent art phenomena and taking into account the complex specificity of the Ukrainian sociopolitical context. With the aim to generate a living archive of Ukrainian contemporary art from the early 1980s to present, the PinchukArtCentre’s Research Platform visualizes the results of its work through a regular exhibition practice.

The title of the exhibition references Virginia Woolf’s classic essay A Room of One’s Own (1929), in which the writer challenged the stereotypical understanding of a woman artist’s position and place in the “men’s” world. By engaging with this title, the exhibition raises the question of women’s “room” in contemporary Ukrainian society. Eschewing clear definitions of what this space might be, the show raises the question of the nature of comfort zones, spaces of freedom, and spaces of expression instead, etc.

Participating artists: Yevgenia Belorusets, Kateryna Bilokur, Yana Bystrova, Oleksandr Chekmeniov, Oksana Chepelyk, Semen Ioffe, Zhanna Kadyrova, Alevtina Kakhidze, Oksana Kazminа, Alina Kleytman, Alina Kopytsa, Oksana Pavlenko, Maria Prymachenko, Polina Raiko, Vlada Ralko, Anna Scherbyna, Maryna Skugareva, Hanna Sobachko-Shostak, Mykola Trokh, Kateryna Yermolaeva, Margarita Zharkova, Anna Zvyagintseva.

The exhibition attempts to highlight the specificity of the Ukrainian art context, which, having inherited outstanding contradictions of the Soviet experience, simultaneously seeks to inscribe itself, if somewhat artificially, into preexisting West European narratives.

The exhibition is comprised of roughly three parts focusing on different interpretations of the notion of space: as enforced and hidden, as political and manifested, and as bodily and sensual. These “spaces” are constructed around a dialogue between the works of contemporary artists and historical artworks (propaganda posters of the 1920s-30s, Soviet monumental art, the so-called folk art, etc.) This marks the first time when PinchukArtCentre invited artists to create new works for a research exhibition, addressing or rethinking the issues raised in the show.

Curators: Tatiana Kochubinska and Tetiana Zhmurko.

Research Platform was launched by the PinchukArtCentre in 2016. It is an open platform for thinking, research and discourse that aims to generate a living archive of Ukrainian Art from the early 80 ties till present. Accessible to all, the research platform is a pioneering project to preserve, catalogue and reconsider historical information that is crucial for critical reflection on Ukrainian identity today and tomorrow.

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T +38 044 494-1148, press [​at​] pinchukartcentre.org

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