Gardens of Dreamsat the M17 Contemporary Art Center

Organised by: M17 Contemporary Art CenterPartners: Art Support Fund, Adamovskiy Foundation

Current project

    102-104, Antonovycha St., Kyiv, 03150, Ukraine

July 25th – September 29th, 2024

Tuesday – Sunday: 11 am – 8 pm

About the Exhibition

On 25 July 2024, the Gardens of Dreams exhibition project was open at the M17 CAC featuring international and Ukrainian artists.
The exhibition includes artworks by Cao Fei, Refik Anadol, Aljoscha, Anatoly Gankevich, Megumi Ohata, Wolfgang Stiller, and Anna Myronova.
The project focuses on the study of imaginary worlds, views on the coexistence of humans with artificial intelligence, expanding the horizons of synthetic biology, virtuality and reality, as well as a metaphor for the temple of the future, which is being built today and is not solely constructed by humans.

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    People have long turned to gardens, both real and imaginary, in search of refuge from the frenzy of reality: from the sacred space of the Garden of Eden, a stronghold of unconditional love, joy, and the quintessence of high dreams, to the philosophers’ gardens. The latters have long served as a model and a source for meticulous self-improvement and self-development, a holy place for peace and enlightenment: these associations have been preserved in the public domain for centuries.
    Where will the imagination bring a human being in search of paradise? Which seeds of today will form the garden of tomorrow? Will the dark shadows of the lush beauty of the garden of dreams bring good or evil?
    Rapid technological development and the evolution of artificial intelligence call into question whether the human race will retain its superiority. Moreover, the uncertainty shrouds the trajectory of human development and questions their current position, as the starting point of departure to the future. The imperfection of peoples’ physical embodiment is that regardless of being creators like God, they remain dual and helpless to find immortality. Subject to the physical perishability of the body,  they seek eternal life in artificial worlds.
    However, unlike advanced artificial forms of existence, it is primordially mankind that is endowed with the ability to dream and behave in an irrational way. Through their aspirations, people invent ways to form alternative realities and act as both creators and destructors in the constant pursuit of the highest good and everlasting life.
    In fantasy and imagination, new dimensions are envisaged and born. Despite the utopia of paradise and their own dual nature, mortals, by virtue of their faith, continue searching.
    The exhibition is supported by Art Support Fund and Adamovskiy Foundation.The opening of the exhibition at the M17 CAC is scheduled for 25 July 2024 at 6:30 p.m.Admission to the opening is free by prior registration. Registration is available here.You are kindly invited!

Artists of the project

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Cao Fei

Cao Fei is an ultra-contemporary artist ranked among the Top 5 in China, and her popularity is constantly growing. The 56th Venice Biennale in 2015 became a notable event in the artist's career.
Cao Fei's works have been exhibited in many global cultural institutions, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris and MoMA PS1 in New York.

Illustration

Refik Anadol

Refik Anadol is an internationally renowned media artist, director, and pioneer in the aesthetics of machine intelligence, winner of numerous awards and prizes.
Anadol’s site-specific audio/visual performances have been exhibited at MoMA (New York), the Centre Pompidou, Pinakothek der Moderne, Art Basel.

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Aljoscha

Aljoscha's works are represented in a number of museum collections across the world, such as Tate Modern in London and Museum Ludwig in Cologne, among others. Recently, his artworks were showcased at TEFAF art fairs in New York and Maastricht.
The artist’s bioism is an attempt to create art based on vitality, multiplicity and complexity.

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Anatoly Gankevich

Anatoly Gankevich's professional artistic career began back in the 1990s and, in no time, he became one of the most prominent representatives of the New Ukrainian Wave. As the artist, he is famous for creating paintings in a unique technique - imitation of mosaics, and video art. Last year, Gankevich's solo exhibition Night in Paradise was on view at the Frédérick Mouraux Gallery in Antwerp, Belgium.

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Megumi Ohata

Megumi Ohata’s practice explores Posthuman philosophy, the future beyond the bravest expectations, as well as gender, and identity, and perceives their art as an extension of the body.
Ohata was a runner-up for the Batsford Prize 2019 and delivered an artist talk “Reimagining Human Body” at the Tate Modern (London) in 2023.

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Wolfgang Stiller

Wolfgang Stiller has been an artist for almost 40 years, during which time he witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the prime of popular culture. His works can be found in prestigious museum collections around the world, from China to Germany.
His realistic matchstick men sculptures address the sense of death and exhaustion associated with burnout.

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Anna Myronova

Anna Myronova has recently been appointed a corresponding member of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine. She is a lecturer at the at the Department of Design, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University. As early as 2016, Anna Myronova was included in the Forbes ranking of the most successful representatives of contemporary Ukrainian art.

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Cao FeiOz, 2022

Video installation
218x124 сm, 190x108 сm

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Refik AnadolMachine Hallucinations: Hubble Dreams-A, 2021

Video installation based on artificial intelligence, 200x120 cm

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Megumi OhataMujina & Haori, 2021-2023

Silicone, foam, аrtificial skin, pigment, thread, 50x180x110 cm

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AljoschaParadise Engineering, 2024

Installation, acrylic glass, metal 

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Anatoly GankevichNight color 1, 2019

Canvas, oil200x150 cm

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Anatoly GankevichNight color 2, 2019

Canvas, oil200x150 cm

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Anatoly GankevichNight in Paradise 1, 2021

Canvas, oil
180x300 cm

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Anatoly GankevichNight in Paradise 2 , 2019

Canvas, oil
180x250 cm

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Anatoly GankevichNight in Paradise, 2024

Installation

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Anatoly GankevichSummer 2, 2021

Canvas, oil
200x150 cm

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Anatoly GankevichSeroburomalin, 2021

Canvas, oil
200x150 cm

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Anatoly GankevichPortal, 2023

Photo collage
130x200 cm

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Anatoly GankevichSpring 1, 2021

Canvas, oil
200x150 cm

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Anatoly GankevichSpring 2, 2021

Canvas, oil
200x150 cm

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Anatoly GankevichWinter 2, 2021

Canvas, oil
200x300 cm

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Anatoly GankevichSpring, 2022

Photo collage using a landscape map, 200x300 cm

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Anatoly GankevichNight shadows, 2024

Video12,41 minutes

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Wolfgang StillerMatchstick men, 2013

Polyurethane, woodHeight - 165 cm

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Anna MyronovaWhere the silence is born, 2024

Paper, pencilSeries of six drawings

Photos of the Exposition

Organizer and partners

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M17 Contemporary Art Center

M17 Contemporary Art Center is a cultural institution that functions as an educational and research platform, an exhibition venue for Ukrainian and foreign contemporary art. M17 supports art experiments, collaborations to integrate Ukrainian art into the world context.

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Art Support Fund

Art Support Fund is an independent, non-profit, charitable and public-benefit foundation initiated by a group of international patrons, contributing to arts and culture and following the aim to help and support the preservation of the cultural heritage of Ukraine

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Adamovskiy Foundation

Adamovskiy Foundation is a non-profit foundation founded in 2018 by businessman Andriy Adamovskiy. The Foundation’s activities are aimed at preserving and studying the cultural heritage of Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

Location of the exhibition