A project of Oleg Tistol and Sergei Sviatchenko "The End of Spring" was presented at Kyiv Art Week
2018
Yesterday, on 23rd May, Brovdi Art Foundation (Robert and Nataliya Brovdi) together with Abramovych.Art platform (Igor Abramovych). presented a large special project "The End of Spring" by the artists Oleg Tistol and Sergei Sviatchenko within the International Art Festival Kyiv Art Week.
Collages, photos, stained glass and sculpture – a powerful joint installation of the legendary representatives of a "new wave" Oleg Tistol and Sergei Sviatchenko, literally, hit all those art lovers present at the festival. Both artists, who were in the origin of contemporary Ukrainian art, have been living in different parts of Europe for many years, but as it turned out, all the time they have been thinking, feeling and working in one and the same direction. That is why "The End of Spring" is a unique dialogue through the years filled with metaphors, symbols, nostalgia, forebodings and predictions.
During the opening of the exhibition, the co-founder of Brovdi Art Robert Brovdi noted that the Foundation gladly supported the project and, in some ways, directly contributed to its birth. “For the first time, the idea of this project was born in Uzhhorod in autumn 2017, when Tistol and Sviatchenko, being the jury members of the student contest ‘Silver Easel’ met in person after almost a thirty-year break ... It was there, in the presence of Igor Abramovych, when it was decided to fix the event by the joint project of two famous artists. And today we can see the result of several months’ efforts, and we are proud to present this extraordinary art project", Robert Brovdi added.
In her turn, the co-founder of Brovdi Art Nataliya Brovdi said: "Things Tistol and Sviatchenko demonstrated by their installation is the result of experience, thoughts, emotions and feelings of two mature and very talented artists about our history and the present. There is also a deep concept, and an extraordinary author's performance, as well as contemporary elements of art style. And all this, in our opinion, deserves the attention of the contemporary art connoisseurs. We believe that everyone who is familiar with the project "The End of Spring" will receive aesthetic and intellectual pleasure."
The initiator and co-organizer of the project Igor Abramovych, when sharing his thoughts of the "The End of Spring", noted: "The project was conceptually and meaningfully developed and implemented by the authors themselves. They have long been friends and have always maintained creative relationships. It is very important that Tistol worked in Ukraine, and Sviatchenko – in Denmark, but they had common views, joint subjects and this was the way this project was created. Everything was made at the discretion of the artists. They actively interacted, all the time conducting the dialogue, step by step with the help of various messengers they coordinated all the elements and images, worked in one wavelength. It was a fantastic creative process! I believe that the project was a success, the artists showed everything they wanted. And now it's time for the audience, critics, historians, everyone who is present, to evaluate, watch and express their feelings."
The authors themselves also told about the project. Thus, in particular, Sergei Sviatchenko spoke about the idea of the key work of the installation called "Return": "When I first flew to Kyiv, I got the idea in the plane: how should I behave when I come the land I haven’t been to for 30 years? Shall I react somehow as an artist? And I had a desire to kneel down on my native land. But, since Oleg was next to me, I also wanted to hug him and express my feelings to him as an artist and a person. This is how this installation "Return" was created. These are feelings I wanted to convey after returning home. This does not mean that I'm finished with Denmark and starting to work here. It will be all together, I will share my experience here, share it with people at any level."
An artist Oleg Tistol added: "This is a project about friendship, love, life, paradise, meeting, trust, everything about everything. About creative period, understanding. Today, Sergei, answering the question "What is happiness?" said as follows: ‘Happiness is when you are understood.’ This project is about a complete understanding, friendship between artists and all the involved participants, such as Igor Abramovych, Robert and Nataliya Brovdi. And the first expert assessments indicate that we worked everything out."
At the opening of the special project, there was a full house. The pavilion was attended by art historians, curators, art critics, artists, gallerists, and numerous art admirers. All of them enthusiastically watched the installation, thinking, sometimes wondering, but the majority admitted that they were struck! Thus, the founder of the Stedley Art Foundation Stella Beniaminova emphasized the atmosphere and emotionality of the project: "If art is real, it should be energized, it should attract and when I came to this stand and saw everything around, I felt that there were such mesmerising objects that I couldn’t take my eyes off them! Today we saw here two masters, two representatives of a new wave, who united here on this stand."
A special guest of the exposition pavilion "The End of Spring" was the former auctioneer, co-owner of the auction house Phillps and one of the most influential people in the world of art – Simon de Pury. He noticed that Ukrainian art, in general, is very interesting to him, and the first thing that struck him during his stay at Kyiv Art Week was a large number of talented artists and great works. Simon de Pury confessed that he likes being in Kyiv. Once, during one of his trips, he attended 5-6 studios and galleries, having purchased a whole collection of the contemporary Ukrainian art. The Ukrainian art market, in his opinion, is West-centric. Simon de Pury considers the joint project of Tistol and Sviatchenko to be very fascinating and compares their collaboration with that of Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat who managed to combine different aspects of their creativity.
One can see the joint project of Oleg Tistol and Sergei Sviatchenko "The End of Spring" within the framework of the Kyiv Art Week until 27 May 2018.
Photo: Robert Dovganych, Anton Kulakovskyi
Press centre of Brovdi Art Foundation
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