Open Eye Gallery’s new curator Max Gorbatskyi announced as co-curator for the Ukrainian pavilion, Venice Biennale 2024.
Following a successful partnership with the curators Max Gorbatskyi and Viktoria Bavykina developing the HOME programme during Eurovision in Liverpool, Open Eye Gallery is delighted to announce we will be supporting the development of artistic projects for the national pavilion for Ukraine at the 60th Venice Biennale.
Ukraine will be represented by Katya Buchatska, whose project, co-authored with neurodiverse people, addresses the subject of greetings and scrutinises the communication structures; Andrii Dostliev and Lia Dostlieva, who together with Ukrainian displaced people will reflect on the image and perception of refugees; and by Daniil Revkovskiy and Andriy Rachinskiy, whose video-work features numerous amateur videos that recorded the experiences of people in Ukraine before and during the full-scale russian invasion. The pavilion architect is Oleksandr Burlaka, project coordinator is Olena Kasperovych, and designer is Misha Buksha.
Andriy Rachinskiy, Oleksandr Burlaka, Andrii Dostliev and Lia Dostlieva were all exhibited in Open Eye Gallery and other venues across the Liverpool City Region during the HOME programme.
Max Gorbatskyi, Open Eye Gallery curator, said
“The project under the working title “Weaving The Nets” refers to the metaphor of weaving a camouflage net as a joint action, which simultaneously allows and helps the emancipation of each participant. The three artistic projects by Katya Buchatska, Andrii Dostliev and Lia Dostlieva, Daniil Revkovskiy and Andriy Rachinskiy will present the viewers with various shared experiences, ways of experiencing and the possibilities of communicating them. An essential condition of all three projects is the role of people and communities as co-authors and artists as facilitators who support different voices and help them manifest themselves in joint action.”
Sarah Fisher, Open Eye Gallery director, said
“Max and Viktoria’s proposal for the pavilion is exceptionally strong – both in concept and in the calibre of chosen artists. It is fundamentally aligned to Open Eye Gallery’s ethos of artists meaningfully engaging communities and broadening the voices contributing to contemporary practice. We are delighted to support our new curator Max Gorbatskyi and to work again with Viktoria Bavykina towards a very 21st Century exhibition.”
The 60th Venice Biennale is set to run from 20 April – 24 November 2024 and will be curated by Adriano Pedrosa. The title of the Biennale is ‘Foreigners Everywhere’, and it will spotlight artists from diverse backgrounds, especially those who belong to groups that have historically been marginalised. The countries are now announcing the curators and the artists for the national pavilions.
Max Gorbatskyi was previously a curator at Ukraine’s flagship cultural institution Mystetskyi Arsenal, where he focused on developing photography programmes and exhibitions. He worked extensively with archival and contemporary photography. Among the last projects he curated was a large-scale survey of the last three decades of photography in Ukraine, entitled “Sensitivity. Contemporary Ukrainian Photography” and a research project “Archive of photographer Oleksandr Ranchukov” dedicated to the private archive of a late Kyiv based documentary photographer. Max is a co-founder of the Ukrainian. Photographies platform which features online exhibitions and articles with the aim to ensure the resilience and visibility of Ukrainian art and contemporary visual culture.
Viktoria Bavykina is a curator and art critic from Ukraine with a particular interest in political art and contemporary photography practices she approaches through feminist theories. Co-founder and curator of Ukrainian. Photographies platform.
Image by Rob Battersby
