The Journey to the East
5 August–30 September 2011
Opening: 17:00
Arsenal Gallery in Białystok
Mickiewicza 2, Bialystok, Poland
Installations in city space
Organizers
Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Audiovisual Institute (www.nina.gov.pl)
Sponsors:
PKO BP, PZU
Local organizer
Arsenal Gallery
Local Partners
Bialystok City
Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow
Polish Insitute in Kiev
Mystetskyi Arsenal
THE JOURNEY TO THE EAST
As a part of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council, Arsenal Gallery in Bialystok is organizing an exhibition entitled “The Journey to the East.” Poland, along with Sweden, is the initiator of Eastern Partnership project. Therefore we invite artists from participating countries—Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldavia, and Ukraine—as well as artists from Poland.
We do not want to pigeonhole the works on the basis of nationality; however, we do not pretend that the issues of ethnicity and nationality are invisible. Young political systems and post-communist heritage still influence art in many countries. Artistic activity is connected not only to artist’s personal resources: art schools, institutions supporting the artists’ work, the existence of artistic circles and presence of art critics and curators play an important role as well. These are important issues, which we have noticed in virtually every country we have visited. Finally, artists make statements concerning only the topics pertaining to themselves and their lives.
Edwin Bendyk prophesies that the solution to various global problems is the creation of interpersonal relations based on love, not competition, hierarchy or domination. We are interested in love, which transgresses the notion of relation between two people. We seek positive emotions, which create bonds between people all over the world—bonds that are an alternative to government authority and economic capital.
We want to ask the artists what role they think these emotions play in post-communist society and whether building new social capital on interpersonal relations is a utopian dream or actually the achievable solution.
We see our project as an open situation, creating various modes of participation and interpretation—not only watching and listening, but also discussion, active participation and writing. We will gather objects, organize meetings, discussions, lectures, workshops, performances and installations in public space.
Artists:
Vahram Aghasyan
Rashad Alakbarov
Ruben Arevshatyan
Babi Badalov
Samvel Baghdasaryan
Alicja Bielawska
Anatoly Belov
Bouillon Group
CHINGIZ
Anna Chkolnikova
Lado Darakhvelidze
Kuba Dąbrowski
Veaceslav Druta
Tatiana Fiodorova
Arman Grigoryan
Nicolas Grospierre
Armine Hovhannisyan
Orkhan Huseynov
Elżbieta Jabłońska
Dominik Jałowiński
Alevtina Kakhidze
Yaroslava-Maria Khomenko
Tigran Khachatryan
Aleksander Komarov
Maxim Kuzmenko
Volodymyr Kuznetsov
Anna Molska
Marina Naprushkina
Dumitru Oboroc
Joanna Rajkowska
Elene Rakviashvili
Stefan Rusu
Nino Sekhniashvili
Sergey Shabohin
Sabina Shikhlinskaya
Jakub Szczęsny
Sophia Tabatadze
TanzLaboratorium
Stas Volyazlovsky
Oleg Yushko
Curator:
Monika Szewczyk
Project Concept:
Anna Łazar, Monika Szewczyk
Contributing Curators:
Magda Guruli
Mariana Hovhannisyan
Anna Łazar
Lena Prents
Stefan Rusu
Exhibition Design:
Robert Rumas
Artworks production coordinator:
Sylwia Narewska
www.uwaganakulture.pl
www.culturecongress.eu
www.culture.pl
