Biennial Foundation

National Cultural-Art and Museum Complex Mystetskyi Arsenal
Lavrska str, 10-12, 01010, Kyiv
Ukraine

T +380 44 288 51 22
savenok@artarsenal.in.ua
artarsenal.in.ua/eng/event28.html

The first in a series of Biennial exhibitions to be held in the newly converted Mystetskyi Arsenal in the historic centre of Kyiv, capital of the Ukraine. Curator: David Elliott (UK), Exhibition 17 May — 17 July 2012.

"The Best of Times, The Worst of Times" takes as its subject the cyclical nature of contemporary art and how this is related both to our lives today and to our continually changing perspectives on past and future.

Its title is derived from the opening lines of Charles Dickens’ "A Tale of Two Cities", a novel about the French Revolution, which the writer pointed out could also refer to almost any other time or place. Since the beginning of time continuing cycles of birth, vitality, decline and death have accompanied the rise and fall of species, empires and cultures, often one providing the platform for the next. Yet recently something has changed. The previous prerogative for total destruction lay with either god or nature, whereas now nuclear holocaust, intended or not, has, with the rapid increase of global warming, invested humanity not only with the capacity of destroying itself but also all the natural systems that have supported it .

With knowledge comes responsibility. The work in this exhibition chosen from artists from many different countries, including those from the Ukraine and CIS States, will cast a critical eye on contemporary culture, confronting the worst often as a means of protecting and celebrating the best.

The main project will be organised around four hub ideas and will occupy the first and second floors of Mystetskyi Arsenal with the total exhibition area of ​​20,000 square meters.The exhibition is organised around four hub ideas, none of which are mutually exclusive. The first, The Restless Spirit, looks at the ways in which we derive strength from beliefs, myths and conceptions of the universe that are not governed by material need; In the Name of Order examines how under the pretext of rationalism power attempts to dominate culture through the creation of self-serving hierarchies; Flesh takes the human body, its appetites, desires and limitations as its central theme. The Unquiet Dream, the final section of the exhibition, focuses on nightmares and premonitions of disaster, without which we are unable to change.

ARSENALE 2012 will be curated by David Elliott (UK). David Elliott curated the 17th International Biennale of Sydney (THE BEAUTY OF DISTANCE: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age, 2008-2010); he established and headed the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo; he was the director and curator of Moderna Museeet in Stockholm and Istanbul Modern museum.


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Participants:
Zygmunt Bauman, Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Boris Buden, Ilya Budraitskis, Vasyl Cherepanyn, Sebastian Cichocki, Boris Groys, Maria Hlavajova, Aleksandra Jasinska-Kania, Artem Magun, Oleksiy Radynski, Gerald Raunig, Renata Salecl, Simon Sheikh, Slawomir Sierakowski, Oksana Timofeeva, Anton Vidokle

Contributing Artists:
Luchezar Bojadjiev, Dora Garcia, Dan Perjovschi, Gruppa Predmetov, Roee Rosen, Andreas Siekmann, Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas, Oleksandr Wolodarsky and others

Curated by Ekaterina Degot

Art is quite comfortable with the idea of the end of art. But how can art deal with the end of the world?

The popular fantasy of the end of the universe coming in 2012 has recently acquired unexpected political significance. There is a growing conviction that the world as we know it should end. In fact, the resounding crash of global financial capitalism and spectacular manifestations of discontent all over the world are telling us that the world of unrestrained consumption is already on its deathbed. Why wait passively until the system decomposes by itself—until “the world ends”? Why not start inventing a new world, the one that will succeed the current apocalypse?

The utopian tradition of the artistic reinvention of society has become a political necessity today. The basic question of the platform and the accompanying publication—”What is and what should never be?”—is addressed not to professional politicians and economists, but rather to artists, philosophers, activists and theoreticians. We expect that the answers to this question will contribute to the process of inventing our postapocalyptic world anew, with a particular focus on the situation of “art after the end of the world.” We are aware of the pivotal role of the institution of contemporary art within neocapitalism—contemporary art with its logic of innovation and postindustrial immaterial practice, with its spirit of resistance (so often defeatist) and its critical attitude (so easy to domesticate). In any case, we believe that the artistic ability to see the horizons of an uncertain future and to create the vector of the possible is priceless.

These issues are not to be considered from a neutral, totalizing, “globalized” point of view. Rather, our suggestion is rooted in the experience of an “apocalypse” that for more than two decades now has defined the context where the Kyiv Biennial is about to take place. The collapse of symbolic that occurred with the end of “socialism” in the Soviet bloc is comparable to the ongoing fall of the global neocapitalist system. This experience seems to be gaining new significance nowadays, as similar threats are becoming universal.

The platform is an extended event structured as a series of discussions, talks, lectures and seminars. A publication forthcoming in summer 2012 will sum up the project.

Schedule:
February 29 – Lecture by Simon Sheikh
March 23 – Lecture by Anton Vidokle
April 6–8 – Conference with Zygmunt Bauman, Boris Buden, Ilya Budraitskis, Vasyl Cherepanyn, Sebastian Cichocki, Maria Hlavajova, Aleksandra Jasinska-Kania, Artem Magun, Oleksiy Radynski, Gerald Raunig, Slawomir Sierakowski, Oksana Timofeeva
May 7 – Lecture by Franco “Bifo” Berardi
May 14 – Lecture by Boris Groys
May 25 – Lecture by Renata Salecl

Venue:
Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv
Lavrska street 10-12

The platform will take place in the frame of the 1st Kyiv Biennial Arsenale 2012. The main exhibition of the Biennial will be curated by David Elliott (23 May–30 July 2012).
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