UKRyttia / “Shelter”

Imagine Point, Imagine point
Imagine Point
Date: 25.06.2022
Address: Holosiyivsky prospect, 86/1
Country, City: Ukraine, Kiev
UKRyttia / “Shelter”, Imagine point

The new reality where we are forced to exist today, which we are trying to accept, dictates its rules in almost all spheres of life.

Art is no exception. It was said in various forms that the artist creates better during shocks, stress, and troubles. But many cannot pick up a brush or write a new poem because the war is physically and morally exhausting. Even in the days before the full-scale invasion, artists felt that something was about to happen that would change the lives of the entire country and every citizen, and this feeling deprived them of the opportunity to create.

But… more than 100 days of heroic defense against evil have passed, and not only from the evil that is directly brought by hostilities but also the struggle of each individual with their own fears, pity, pain, and inner monsters. Probably, we can find salvation from the war in art.

In the “Imagine Point” gallery in the joint project “UKRyttia”, Flora Gatsenko and Anton Tarasyuk show how art can become a shelter from terrible premonitions in moments of heavy anticipation and what artworks can be created under the sounds of a siren, hiding in the bathroom.

It is known that the war began not on February 24, 2022, but 8 years earlier. A few months before the full-scale invasion, the horde began to accumulate troops on the borders of Ukraine.

Anton Tarasyuk, at this time (2020-2021), created a series of paintings on sacred themes, but in the paintings, there is a premonition of inevitable changes. The characters in Anton's paintings are like a request for support and protection, for the end of the war with our victory as soon as possible. “It's all about the struggle, the battle for life, survival, existence and the future.” - Anton Tarasyuk.

Drawings by Flora Gatsenko - an honest diary of the war. Painted with what was at hand, the paintings contain a part of the day they were created… dates, images, faces… These, in a way, notes became a shelter for the artist during aerial alarms and shelling. A burst of emotions, sharing them with those who see these works, became a repeater of the artist’s inner world in the moment of experience, the method of her perception of the new reality.

“Imagine Point” gallery, in the first weeks of the war, was a literal shelter where people hid from shelling and air raids. Returning to our activities - cultural space - we perceive our project as a cultural armor that unites us, strengthens, and empowers us to live in this world.

We invite you to visit the project “UKRиття” by Flora Gatsenko and Anton Tarasyuk, which is extended until July 1.

Author: Pozhydaieva Daria.

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