Is It a Ray or a Night
An exhibition of Odesa video art and actionism exploring social roles, imitation, conflict and the possibility of dialogue.
Co-curated with Anna Morokhovska. Artists: Dmytro Ehrlich, Mykola Karabinovych, Andrii Liubov, PLOT, Oleksandr Roitburd, Aliona Tokovenko, Viktoriia Khoroshylova and Nadiia Shoshina.
About the project
How do we find a common language when the conditions for dialogue are disappearing? Curated by Anna Morokhovska and Andrii Siguntsov, the exhibition follows the ways in which society teaches us to imitate, belong and resist. It opens with Oleksandr Roitburd, an important figure in the formation of Odesa video art, and Dmytro Ehrlich’s Lunch with the Artist, where repetition of the “master” becomes an invitation to participate.
Performances by Andrii Liubov and PLOT approach collective life through everyday encounters and public actions. Works by Viktoriia Khoroshylova, Nadiia Shoshyna and Aliona Tokovenko address war, pain, the search for acceptance and the obstacles that limit movement through social space. A video by Mykola Karabinovych closes the exhibition with a warning about obedience to a teacher transformed into a tyrant.
The curatorial proposition is that dialogue changes both sides. Even when shared values seem difficult to identify, the task is to create a space in which disagreement can be articulated and another person can still be heard.