In the last few weeks, we have often seen pictures from Ukraine with statues and monuments tightly covered in sandbags to protect them from being damaged by the Russian bombs and missiles. In particular we have seen the symbol of Odesa, the bronze monument of Duke de Richelieu, one of the most iconic landmarks in the city, and the statue of national poet Taras Shevchenko in Kharkiv, hidden behind a piles sandbags. A similar structure of sandbags has been recreated in the Spazio Esedra at the Giardini of the Venice Biennale.
Entitled "Piazza Ucraina" (Ukraine Square), this open-air installation was created by the curators of the Ukrainian Pavilion Borys Filonenko, Lizaveta German and Maria Lanko (the Ukrainian Pavilion features instead work by Pavlo Makov, the official Ukrainian artist at the 59th Venice Biennale) upon invitation of La Biennale and Cecilia Alemani and with the collaboration of the Ukrainian Emergency Art Fund (UEAF) and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.
The Ukrainian Emergency Art Fund (UEAF), a foundation launched by MOCA NGO together with independent media Zaborona, The Naked Room gallery and cultural institution Mystetskyi Arsenal to support artists and cultural workers during the war and afterwards, also compiled The Wartime Art Archive. The fund collects donations and offers opportunities to support Ukrainian independent artists, curators, art managers, researchers and non-governmental cultural initiatives.
A piazza is a meeting point, and the square dedicated to Ukraine, designed by Ukrainian architect and artist Dana Kosmina, is a place of solidarity at the 59th International Art Exhibition in Venice. The life of Ukrainians dramatically changed on 24th February this year as Russia invaded the country.
Official art events may have stopped, but Ukrainian artists have been producing other types of work to get the strength to go through the harsh reality of the war and survive. Artists reacted in different ways, from volunteering to joining the army; some of them created databases of artisans and designers to pass the time and show the rest of the world the vitality of the country, or comment about the events via posters and illustrations. Many of them also use social media to comment, and bravely document and report.
The project in Venice hopes to give voice to artists and the art community of Ukraine as well as other countries in solidarity with the people of Ukraine in the aftermath of the brutal Russian invasion. Piazza Ucraina is therefore a work in progress: while at the moment it is still more or less bare, posters and images will be layered on each other on the charred wooden structures erected next to the pile of sandbags, so that the place will be constantly updated by the Wartime Art Archive. Each work that will be displayed here will be stamped with its exact date of creation, like a piece of evidence. Besides, the space is also conceived as a place for debates and conversations reminiscent of the agora in ancient Greek city-states.
The main theme of this year's Biennale is "The Milk of Dreams" and addresses human change. The square perfectly fits with this theme as it explores the change human beings go through during a war, raising awareness about the consequences of a conflict in our times.
"In its 127 years of existence, La Biennale has registered the shocks and revolutions of history like a seismographer," Cecilia Alemani, Curator of the 59th International Art Exhibition, stated in an official press release. "Our hope is that with Piazza Ucraina we can create a platform of solidarity for the people of Ukraine in the earth of the Giardini, among the historical pavilions that were built on the very ideal of nation-state, shaped by twentieth century geopolitical dynamics and colonial expansions."
Image credits for this post
Piazza Ucraina by the Curators of the Ukrainian Pavilion Borys Filonenko, Lizaveta German, Maria Lanko, The 59th International Art Exhibition with the collaboration of the Ukrainian Emergency Art Fund (UEAF) and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. Open-air installation at the Giardini of La Biennale, designed by Ukrainian architect Dana Kosmina. Photo by Marco Cappelletti. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia
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