Ukrainian Pavilion, Ukraine at Venice Biennale of Art - Arsenale, Castello - City of Venice
Exhibition in progress from April 20th to November 26th 2024
The 60th Biennale Arte will open to the public on April 20. But on the 17th, 18th and 19th there will be the various events and collateral events that always enliven
suddenly Venetian artistic life. The awards ceremony will take place the day of opening to the public.
The title of the 60th edition of the Art Biennale is Foreigners Everywhere - Foreigners Everywhere.
The exhibition will be divided into between the Central Pavilion in the Giardini and the Arsenale, including 213 artists from 88 nations. There are 26 Italian artists, 180 first participations in the International Exhibition, 1433 works and objects on display, 80 new productions.
Go to the page of the 60th Venice Art Biennale
Curator of the 60th Venice Art Biennale
The 2024 edition is curated by Adriano Pedrosa.
Adriano Pedrosa, curator of the 60th Venice Art Biennale
– Adriano Pedrosa (born 1965) is a Brazilian curator. He is the artistic director of the São Paulo Art Museum (MASP) and the 2024 Venice Biennale.
Ukrainian Pavilion at 60th Biennale Arte of Venice
The title of the exhibition at the Ukrainian Pavilion is Net Making.
Artists: Katya Buchatska, Andrii Dostliev and Lia Dostlieva, Daniil Revkovskyi and Andrii Rachynskyi, and Oleksandr Burlaka.
Curators: Viktoria Bavykina and Max Gorbatskyi.
Seat: Arsenale - Venice
Press Release Ukrainian Pavilion
The national Ukraine Pavilion presents Net Making at the 60th International Art Exhibition of La
Biennale di Venezia - a group exhibition curated by Viktoria Bavykina and Max Gorbatskyi. The title
of the exhibition draws from the practice of Ukrainian civilians collectively weaving camouflage nets
during the war. This community act is explored as a symbol of collective resistance in the face
of the Russian invasion.
The Ukrainian Pavilion will address the topic of otherness through personal experiences of war,
emigration, assimilating into new societies, and the transformation of language under the
pressure of violence.
The exhibition will feature four presentations by artists Katya Buchatska, Andrii Dostliev and Lia
Dostlieva, Daniil Revkovskyi and Andrii Rachynskyi, and Oleksandr Burlaka, as well as the
communities with whom the artists have collaborated with
During the opening week, Olena Zelenska, the First Lady of Ukraine, discusses in an address the
importance of La Biennale di Venezia as an important and global platform for Ukraine, three years into
theRussian invasion, providinganopportunity for Ukraine toshowcontemporaryUkrainian artists and
reaffirm voices of the war-torn country. The First Lady visited the collaborators of the project Best
Wishes at their workshop in spring 2024 ahead of the opening of the exhibition in Venice.
Curators Viktoria Bavykina and Max Gorbatskyi comment in reference to the exhibition title:
"Ukrainians are uniting: they take to the streets, volunteer to fight, and gather to weave camouflage
nets. Weaving nets is a process that encompasses more than just making a net to help the army. It is a
recognition of a joint action that is beneficial for each other and for the country. This is not a top-down
decision."
The Ukrainian pavilion is framed by the architectural installation Work by Oleksandr Burlaka.
Composed of woven linen fabrics made before the 1950s which have been collected at Ukrainian flea
markets and online marketplaces. Burlaka’s installation creates a circular, encompassing space for
three other presentations in the exhibition: the filmCivilians. Invasion by Daniil Revkovskyi and Andrii
Rachynskyi, the installationBest Wishes by Katya Buchatska, and the videoComfort Work by Andrii
Dostliev and Lia Dostlieva.
Daniil Revkovskyi and Andrii Rachynskyi will present the film Civilians. Invasion which tells the
story of the first days of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine through the eyes of survivors. The
artists assembled the film from the videos they found using open sources and private YouTube
channels. Commenting on the film, the artists state: “This film is a horror encyclopedia, capturing the
harrowing experiences people endure during a full-scale invasion,”. Valuable for its multi-voiced
documentary veracity, Civilians. Invasion reveals the transformative experience of full-scale invasion
as a radical break with normality.
Katya Buchatska will present Best Wishes, a work she created in collaboration with 15
neurodivergent artists. During the first week of the full-scale invasion, Buchatska attended daily online
classes at an inclusive art workshop in Kyiv. “Every day we discussed and painted familiar things that
brought us back to a certain routine. Life went on, days passed, birthdays came. We wished each other
happy birthday on every occasion, and gradually the language clichés became more and more
obtrusive and incongruous, alienated from us,” says the artist. In Best Wishes, Buchatska focuses on
aspects of language such as idioms and phrases that neurotypical people use, and their interpretation
by neurodivergent people. In Ukraine, phrases such as “it’s bomb-like” mean it is “wonderful” and
“heavy artillery” means a “strong argument.” Since the Russian invasion, the problematic use of these
platitudes became increasingly noticeable. Some phrases, despite their simplicity, acquired newly
sincere meanings.
Continuing themes of otherness, Comfort Work by Andrii Dostliev and Lia Dostlieva problematises
stereotypical perceptions of Ukrainian refugees abroad in other, European countries. The artists
invited professional European actors to play Ukrainian refugees on camera, portraying them as they
are seen by the societies of the host countries. Based on interviews with real people who have
experienced displacement from
Ukraine, the portraits create images of refugees that correspond to the desires of Europeans, based
on stereotypes about immigrants. “The main audience of these videos are European viewers who can
see images of Ukrainians that are convenient for them [that confirm their stereotypes],” the artists
emphasise.
Useful information for the visit
Hours:
Gardens from 10.00 to 19.00. Arsenale from 10.00 to 19.00 (from 10.00 to 20.00 on Friday and Saturday until September 30th). Closed on Mondays (except April 22, June 17, July 22, September 2, September 30, October 31, November 18).
Tickets: please visit the official website.
Phone: +39.041.5218711; fax +39.041.2728329
E-mail: aav@labiennale.org
Web: Biennale
of Venice |
