Research platform: Homeland in flames. Intervention of the Collective of specific dates
The exhibition “Homeland on Fire” offers one perspective on the history of Ukrainian society in the 1990s, told through the prism of selected works from the PinchukArtCentre collection. The title of the exhibition “Homeland on Fire” is an allusion to Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s film story “Ukraine on Fire,” which tells about the bloodshed that took place on the territory of Ukraine during World War II. However, the works presented at the exhibition are in no way related to military actions or the actual front line.
In this case, fire becomes a metaphor for danger, trauma, conflict, which were already felt in society in the 1990s and are reflected in the overall social instability, economic crisis, terrible working conditions, and so on.
The exhibition features works by Serhiy Bratkov, Volodymyr Kozhukhar, Eduard Kolodiy, Mykola Matsenko, Borys Mykhailov, Heorhiy Senchenko, Illia Chichkan, and the group “Perci” (Oleh Petrenko and Liudmyla Skrypkina). These works are united by reflections on life after a technological disaster and the awareness of life in the early years of post-Soviet Ukraine. Exhibited together, the selected works outline the zone of social and economic transition, which is imprinted in the collective consciousness as the “diagnosis” of the 1990s.
The artistic group “Collective of Specific Dates” was invited to participate in the exhibition; they work with commemoration practices, archives, and engage in performative research. The artists were invited to reflect on the themes raised by the exhibition through a series of interventions.
“Collective of Specific Dates” emerged in the spring of 2015 as an artistic group working with various commemoration practices. Giving special importance to archival materials and historical marginalia, CSD seeks a deeper understanding of public celebrations and solemn events, their role in ideological narratives and life experience.
Curator: Tetyana Kochubynska
