From the Concentration of the Will at M17Ukrainian GolgothaVideo, 1 min 25 sec, 2022Price on request
Read more about the artwork
Last year's Manifesta 14 biennial in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, explored the theme of how we create and share stories across cultures and communities.
At the request of the Katažina Kozyra Foundation, for the MANIFESTA 14 project "The Second Archive", which was displayed in the National Gallery of Kosovo, it was necessary to create a 1 min. audio statement about art, life and politics.
This author's statement also served as the basis for the video statement "Ukrainian Calvary", realized for the Retrospective of Oksana Chepelyk at the Torrens Art Museum in Los Angeles
"Writing poems after Auschwitz is barbarism," Adorno's phrase became relevant in 2022. Ukrainian Bucha is Auschwitz today. Life in Ukraine = Deaths: mathematics tells about the Genocide of Ukrainians by the Russians in the 21st century - numbers of mass murders: Bucha - more than 420 killed; Gostomel - 400 people; Irpin - 350, children under the age of 10 with traces of rape and torture, as well as girls and women, were killed; Borodyanka, Vorzel, Makarov, Trostyanets, Sumy, Chernihiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Kramatorsk, Odesa, Kyiv, Kremenchuk, Vinnytsia, Mariupol... Mariupol... Mariupol - 22,000 dead civilians, all atrocities unfolding in real time before the eyes of the whole world. Policy?
"Be afraid of the indifferent! It is with their silent consent that all the evil on earth is happening!" If the genocide in the Balkans at the end of the 20th century was stopped by the international community, then in the 21st century was the genocide already permitted? The question voiced by the Ukrainian voice, which has been in the zone of silence and invisibility for too long, is struggling to break through the backlog to be "heard" and share its stories with other communities and cultures. The merciless destruction of colonialism for the sake of building a free world requires the concentration of will not only of the Ukrainian people, but also of democratic countries in this modern civilizational war.
Video
Oksana Chepelyk's Ukrainian Golgotha
Politics. "Fear the indifferent! It is with their tacit consent that all evil is committed on earth!" If the genocide in the Balkans at the end of the 20th century was brought to a halt by the international community, has genocide become acceptable in the 21st century? The question, voiced by Ukraine, the voice that used to be in the zone of muteness and invisibility for too long, is struggling to break through the barriers to be "heard" and reveal its stories to other communities and cultures.
The ruthless destruction of colonialism for the sake of building a free world demands the concentration of the will not only of the Ukrainian people but also of democratic countries in this modern civilisational war.
About the artist
Oksana Chepelyk (1961, Kyiv) is a leading researcher of The New Technologies Department at The Modern Art Research Institute of Ukraine, an author of the book “The Interaction of Architectural Spaces, Contemporary Art and New Technologies” (2009) and (since 2007) a curator of the IFSS – International Festival of Social Sculpture in Kiev.
In 1978-1984 she studied at the Art Institute in Kyiv, followed by a PhD course, 1995 CIES in Paris, 1996 Amsterdam University, 1998 the New Media Study Program at the Banff Centre, Canada, 2000-2002 Bauhaus Dessau, Germany, and 2003-2004, 2010-2011 Fulbright Research Program, UCLA, USA.
Residencies: 1996 CREDAC, Paris, 1998 BANFF Centre, Canada, 2001 ARTELEKU, San Sebastian, Spain, FACT, Liverpool, UK, 2000-2002 Bauhaus Dessau, Germany, 2015, DEAC, Budva, Montenegro, 2018 SAV, Tainan; Kuandu Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, IMeRA, Marseille, France. 1992-2021 awarded with grants in France, Germany, Spain, USA, Canada, England, Sweden, Montenegro and Taiwan.
List of the exhibitions
1998 MOMA, New York,
1999 “ART FAIR” Stockholm, Sweden,
1999 Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia,
2000 German Historical Museum, Berlin,
2001 Munich, Germany,
2001 Museum of the Arts History, Vienna, Austria,
2002 “SEAFair”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Macedonia,
2003, 2007, 20011 Museum of Jurassic Technologies, Los Angeles, USA,
2008 “DIGITAL MEDIA Valencia”, Spain, VII Digital Art Salón, MACZUL Museum of Contemporary Art del Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela,
2009 “ArtVilnius”, Vilnius, Lithuania,
2010 “Sarajevo Winter” Art Biennale, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
2011 Broad Art Center, Los Angeles, USA, Art Arsenal Museum, Kiev, 4th Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia, 6th Tashkent Biennale of Contemporary Art, Uzbekistan (Award),
2012 1st Kyiv International Biennale of Contemporary Art ARSENALE, MMOMA, Russia,
2013 Sarajevo Museum, Bosnia and Herzegovina, MMOMA, Russia,
2014 International Festival “Sarajevo Winter 2014”, B&H; IX ART-KYIV Contemporary, Art Arsenal National Museum Complex, Kyiv, Ukraine; “Long Path to Freedom”, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, USA;
2015 “Decompression: Coming Up for Air” Festival “L’Ukraine – Scene libre”, Paris, France; “Borderline. Ukrainian Art 1985-2004”, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv; “The File” – Electronic Language International Festival, the Sesi-SP’s Art Gallery in Centro Cultural Fiesp – Ruth Cardoso, Sao Paolo, Brazil; DEAC, Montenegro;
2016 XVII LPM Amsterdam, Netherlands;
2017 XVIII LPM Amsterdam, Netherlands; “City Code” ArtBatFest 8, Almaty, Kazakhstan; “Anonymous Society”, PinchukArtCentre;
2018 “Flashback. Ukrainian art of the 90th”, Art Arsenal Museum, Kyiv; “Meta-Physical Time-Space”, Tainan, Taiwan, “Free D”, Kuandu Museum, Taipei, Taiwan; “A Space of On’s Own”, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv; TiFF, Soulangh Cultural Park, Tainan, Taiwan;
2019 “Falling shadow of “Mriya” on the gardens of Giardini”, Ukrainian Pavilion, Arsenal, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy; “Insatiable Mind” Salisbury Arts Centre, UK;
2020 “Art+Feminism”, Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta, Malta; XI MADATAC International Festival of a Contemporary Audio-Visual & New Media Art, Madrid, Spain;
2021 1st Ukrainian Biennale of Digital and Media Art, Artarea, Kyiv, Ukraine;
2022 EDAF-2022, “Secondary Archive”, National Gallery of Kosovo, “Manifesta 14”, Prishtina, Kosovo; State of the ART(ist), Ars Electronica 2022, Linz; Guest of Honor, OVNi-2022: “Homage to Matisse”, Matisse Museum, Nice.
Her films were shown and awarded within different film, video and new media festivals: in Kiev, New York, London, Tallinn, Osnabruck, Montecatini, Linz, Paris, Berlin, Oberhausen, Liverpool, Belo Horizonte, Karlovy Vary and Venice /A category/, Chisinau, Weimar, Tel-Aviv, Ankara, Pesaro, Santa Fe, Stuttgart, Barcelona, Berdiansk, Sebastopol, Sarajevo and Clermont-Ferrand. From 1993 she organised 15 curatorial exhibitions (Ukraine, France, USA, Canada, Brazil, Kazakhstan and Germany), 30 solo exhibitions in Europe and America, and participated in a number of joint exhibitions (Germany, Lithuania, Ukraine, France, USA, Sweden, Croatia, Brazil, Austria, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina).
Awards: 1997 and 2007 ArtsLink Award and Independent Projects Award, USA. 1999 A.I.D.O. FilmVideo Award, 2003 Werklietz Award 2003 at EMAF, Osnabruck, Germany. 2003, 2010 Fulbright Awards, USA. 2011 6th Tashkent Biennale Award, Uzbekistan. Cinemadamare Award 2013, Venice International Film Festival, Final Cut (Italy). 2013 Artraker Award, UK. 2018 Best Project of The Year (Taiwan), State of the ART(ist) Award, Ars Electronica 2022, Linz (Austria), Guest of Honor, OVNi-2022, Nice (France).