Ukraine: In Search of Lost Identity
© Kostia Smolyaninov
Curatorial statement: Igor Manko
Throughout its history Ukraine has been part of various Eastern European political unions: the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 14th century, the Commonwealth of the Polish Kingdom two centuries later, then Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires that made Ukrainians fight against each other during WW1. Finally, in 1921, the country found itself in the 70-year-long embrace of the Soviet Union.
Living under the communist regime had a great impact on all aspects of existence in Ukraine, then a Soviet republic, changing its population, prevailing language, the attitudes and the overall mode of life in general. Even today, almost 28 years after Ukraine’s newly acquired independence in 1991, the residue of that ideological legacy is a handicap stymieing the long-awaited transformation. Thus, cultural, political, linguistic and ethnical diversity played a trick on the country in 2014 when extreme positions in the society helped Russia masquerade its military aggression as separatist movement and civil war.
An artistic mind is intrinsically sensitive to incongruities and discrepancies in the workings of the social mechanism. This exhibition offers the artistic reflections of six photographers on different social phenomena that visualize the peculiar features of Ukrainian identity.
Recently acquired autocephaly, i. e. independence of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine from Moscow, foregrounds the religious facet of Ukraine“s self-identification. Several portfolios in this exhibition research the issue.
Kostia Smolyaninov’s black-and-white Street Theography project (2013) shot in Western Ukraine as well as in Poland and Russia is about people publicly displaying their religious feelings.
Elena Subach and Viacheslav Poliakov, an artist duo based in Lviv, are interested in the minutiae of everyday life in Western Ukraine’s cities. Their Lviv–God’s Will (Viacheslav Poliakov, 2017) and Grandmothers on The Edge of Heaven (Elena Subach, 2018) are focused on local religious ceremonies and artifacts of the Soviet past.
Yaroslav Solop’s The Last Haven series of still life images (2017-2018) visualizes religious paraphernalia like icons bearing images of saints, crucifixes, etc. that have become part of everyday environment. His project “explores the question of loneliness and hopelessness, the search for the new meanings in a post-Soviet society where religion has superseded the once overwhelming communist ideology of masses, becoming a phantom hope for serenity and happy future.” (Solop’s artist statement)
For the past few years all inhabitied localities - cities, towns and hamlets alike – have under gone the so-called de-communization campaign. Monuments to Lenin and communist leaders or activists were felled, totonyms sites like city and street names, etc., were changed. However, the Soviet artifacts and symbols (along with the ideological values they carry) are still alive in the mindsets, albeit unconsciously, twisting the interpretation of Ukraine“s history, the perception of its politics, and the overall understanding of the reality. Gera Artemova“s Fall of Carthage(Carthage must be destroyed) collages combine the images of two cult Soviet books: “My Kremlin” and the “Book of Tasty and Healthy Food”. “I couldn't just throw away this ghost of my Soviet childhood and decided to make an art deconstruction” the artist says.
Ethnicity in the Soviet times was under suspicion of being the source of nationalism (as opposed to proclaimed internationalism), and was allowed only in the form of most traditional folk songs and dancing. Artemova’s Melanka shows a rare and grotesque face of the Hutsul ethnic group inhabiting the Carpathian mountains picturing a folk holiday celebrated on January 13th, which is New Year’s Eve by the Julian calendar.
Sexual minorities rights are still a controversial issue in Ukraine. Homosexuality in the USSR was considered a perversion, a disease, and was a criminal offense. Criminal liability was lifted in the post-Soviet Ukraine, but the community remained condemned and ostracized. Marina Frolova“s UGLY project. Nikita addresses the LGBT rights as the country has started its movement towards European values and human rights standards.