Brendan Jamison / Mark Revels: Sugar Democracy

On September 22, 2016, IZOLYATSIA launches a new art project titled Sugar Democracy, consisting of an interactive sculpture installation by Irish artists Brendan Jamison and Mark Revels. Through a fun and playful approach, it celebrates the power of mass-collaboration and encourages all members of the public to participate, irrespective of age, gender, culture or race. 

Ukraine is a world-renowned leader in the sugar industry, a giant in the field of agriculture. Historically, the wealthy sugar magnates, like the Tereshchenko dynasty, were among the most active philanthropists engaged in charity activities, giving Ukraine numerous buildings, cultural and educational institutions, as well as art collections, now kept in national museums. The Sugar Democracy project begins with a reference to historical Ukrainian architecture, with the central part of the installation being a sugar model of the Teacher’s House in Kiev. Originally built in 1912 for the Kiev Pedagogical Museum, the building famously hosted Ukraine’s first Parliament—the Central Council of Ukraine—in 1917–18, as well as the Lenin Museum in 1943–82. The Teachers’ House epitomises a kind of place where culture and education give rise to democracy. Currently, the ownership of the building is disputed and the area around it may become a construction site for a new high-rise in the middle of the historical centre. The Teacher’s House needs a new impulse for revival, just like Ukraine itself, and culture as well as democratic values are instrumental to this process. 

Surrounding the model of the Teacher’s House are sugar buildings inspired by the Suprematist architectons of Kazimir Malevich. The utopian modernist skyscrapers by the Ukrainian-born artist symbolise the ever-present potential for intrepid creative futures. Starting out from these iconic buildings, the project then branches out into an expanding metropolis of contemporary constructions. To create them, Brendan Jamison and Mark Revels will invite a group of Ukrainian architecture students for a week-long residency in Kiev. Since September 22, the installation will be open for all visitors to contribute. They will work together on a building or will add to an existing structure and create a form of hybrid architecture.  

Brendan Jamison and Mark Revels have worked together for the past three years on projects all across the world, from the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Tate Modern in London, to the 798 Art District in Beijing, M50 in Shanghai, and many large-scale works across America. Through sculpture installation, they explore socio-political themes through androgynous architecture and microscopic biological forms, often creating large-scale projects, which invite the public to collaborate with them by expanding upon their own creations.

Sugar Democracy cross-pollinates the fields of art, architecture, engineering agriculture, industrial production, game-playing, community engagement and social interaction. The project focuses on the future as a positive space of imagination and exciting possibilities. Making reference to Ukraine’s historical past, it invites everyone to shape tomorrow with their own hands.  

About IZOLYATSIA
IZOLYATSIA is a cultural platform founded in Donetsk in 2010 and relocated to Kiev in June 2014 after the military occupation of its premises. IZOLYATSIA has three intertwined directions of activity: art, education and projects geared at activating Ukraine’s creative sector. Since 2010, IZOLYATSIA has carried out over 40 international projects, including a series of educational and creative initiatives in Eastern Ukraine known as ZMINA; the international residency programme Architecture Ukraine (Mariupol-Kiev); the exhibition Culture and Conflict: IZOLYATSIA in Exile, at the Palais de Tokyo (Paris), DOX (Prague) and the Heinrich Böll Foundation (Berlin); the #onvacation project at the 56th Venice Biennale; and the project Letters to the Mayor, in collaboration with Storefront for Art and Architecture (New York). In 2016, IZOLYATSIA presented the exhibition Blue Sky Catastrophe at the Villa Arson (Nice) and participated in the 15th Venice International Architecture Biennale with the project Architecture Ukraine—Beyond the Front.