Imagine Ukraine is an ambitious project that aims to reach out beyond the immediate urgencies, however pressing those continue to be. It wants to open up to the larger reflection and longer term perspective that are needed for the future. Europe needs an enhanced focus on Ukraine, its concreteness and complexity, its possibilities and flight lines. Our joint understanding needs to grow.

Imagine Ukraine was initiated by PinchukArtCentre and M HKA, and developed with immediate participation by Bozar, European Parliament and in partnership with the Office of the President of Ukraine It takes place in collaboration with the European Parliament and is possible because of the support of the Flemish Community.

The project is launched through three exhibitions, curated by Bart De Baere and Björn Geldhof, starting from the works of Ukrainian artists in the collection of the Flemish Community, presented at M HKA, Bozar and the European Parliament. These are the starting points to initiate a reflective space about the past, present and future of Ukraine as a part of Europe. In the European Parliament the perspective is that of the artist as a witness, in Bozar the tension between big narratives and the reality of human lives, in M HKA art as a critical mind.

That space will be furthered by reflective materials on Ukraine, brought together by the PinchukArtCentre, and by a series of events. Together with the artistic proposals this creates a reflective platform that will also take the form of a website, built by M HKA and jointly developed by M HKA and PinchukArtCentre. This space will be expanded through lectures, debates, film screenings and other activities, by each of the partners, both in the European Parliament, in Bozar and in M HKA. The program will be announced on the website. The website will be in English, Dutch, French and Ukrainian. It will initially serve as a context for the exhibitions. In a second instance it will make the materials of the exhibitions and public events accessible for a wider audience. In a third instance it wants to make space for the broader solutions we search and find as a society. Imagine Ukraine only operates within the ecology of activities that are at this moment  undertaken by a multitude of actors. It therefore also wants to insist and support on the continued work of institutional and citizen engagement.

Imagine Ukraine aims at a long term commitment of presentation, reflection and communication. In the end, Europe and Ukraine jointly need to develop structural responses to their common future and that with the wider world.

 

Exhibitions

M HKA

Imagine Ukraine – Art as a Critical Attitude

06.05–21.08.2022

With works by: Sergey Bratkov, Davyd Chychkan, Nikita Kadan, Nikolay Karabinovych and Alevtina Kakhidze; with a new mural drawing by Anna Scherbyna; and with videos of young Ukrainian artists: Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Himey, Daniil Revkovskiy and Andriy Rachinsliy, Dana Kavelina, Nikolay Karabinovych, and Yana Bachynska, introduced with a video of the song Hug Me by Svyatoslav Vakarchuk and Akustikos Art Group

 

Bozar, Council Room

Imagine Ukraine – Small and Big Stories

06.05–19.06.2022

With works by: Sergey Bratkov, Nikita Kadan, Alevtina Kakhidze, Lesia Khomenko, Oksana Shachko and Anna Zvyagintseva

 

European Parliament, Parlamentarium

Imagine Ukraine – The Artist as a Witness

06.05–30.09.2022

With works by: Sergey Bratkov, Oleksandr Burlaka, Nikita Kadan, Alevtina Kakhidze, Nikolay Karabinovych, Zhanna Kadyrova and Lesia Khomenko

The works are in the exhibitions complemented by texts by Sergii Plokhii and Thomas Weihe, by video’s with contextual reflections by Timothy Snyder and by registrations of debates.

 

The basic image of the project is by Nikolay Karabinovych.

The exhibition design is inspired by the exhibition design of Oleksandr Burlaka for the Kyiv Biennial of 2021.

The access to all of the exhibitions is for free.

Click here to view the 3D file of the exhibition.