"Acquiring Subjectivity" – Victor Sydorenko's new project at Voloshyn Gallery

13

March

2018

Victor Sydorenko is a figure that does not need to be presented, his name is familiar to many people. He is known as a Ukrainian painter, curator, pedagogue, author of objects and photo compositions, as well as scientific and journalistic texts. Victor Sydorenko is one of the leaders in the contemporary art of Ukraine. The sphere of the artist’s creative interests includes the specific realities of our time –problems of memory, the heritage of post-totalitarian rudiments, the question of identifying a person in the modern world, which is increasingly complicated, the prospects of a person in a new globalization model of lifestyles. In addition, the research focus of his work also refers to the past, but with an emphatically de-ideologized attitude toward the cultural heritage, using the possibilities of the new media.

The main character of the project "Acquiring Subjectivity" is the very mysterious figure of a "new person", which is the so-called "transitive character" in the works of Victor Sydorenko. This is the image of a person in the underwear who, with the author himself, is undergoing metamorphoses, overcoming certain boundaries and becoming different in relation to himself.

As it is not difficult to figure out from the title that the theme of the Sydorenko’s project is a transition, formation and acquisition, which is very essential for our society: "The problem of choice is still relevant for our society, we are still in a transit state between the Soviet past and the capitalist present, we are not allowed to escape from our past, which becomes the subconscious of the present, and it is not allowed to outwit the future. A man cannot appropriate the past, it belongs to him as well as to others. Therefore, self-identification, "verification of authenticity", the infinite comparison is relevant at all times. The main topic I have been working on for many years, exploring and developing its figurative meanings, was determined in 1996 in the project Amnesia, where my character, "a man in underpants", appeared for the first time: semi-dressed man in underwear, which all social levels of society in our country worn for almost a century. At that time, going through the complex and largely imperfect until today process of national self-determination, Ukraine rejected its Soviet past, sought to erase it from the collective memory. However, the unconscious, not yet analysed experience returns to the public consciousness with unlived myths, social complexes,” Victor Sydorenko says. “We live in the era of transparency that reveals illusions and redefines all cultural and value luggage. Scattered is another beautiful illusion – the illusion of freedom. Freedom goes into the category of abstract ideas that cannot come true. The search for unlimited freedom of opportunity is the task of my character. As we know, the world science has not yet proposed a clear definition of "a man", therefore art should offer its own versions."

In addition to the large paintings on the canvas created over the black imprimatura, the exhibition presents a graphic series "Lexicon of A Character".

Victor Sydorenko was born in 1953 in Taldykorgan, Kazakhstan. In 1979, he graduated from the Kharkiv Art and Industrial Institute with honours (now Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts). Since 1985, he has been living and working in Kyiv. Since 1996 – a full member (academician) and vice-president of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine. People's Artist of Ukraine (1998). In 2001, Victor Sydorenko founded and headed the Modern Art Research Institute of Ukrainian Academy of Arts which conducts fundamental research in all the fields of contemporary art. Since 2002, Sydorenko has been a professor of painting, and since 2005 – a PhD in art history. In 2003, he represented Ukraine at the 50th Venice Biennale with his personal project "Millstones of Time". In 2007, together with Oleksandr Soloviov, he was the co-ordinator of the Ukrainian pavilion at the 52 Venice Biennale. Victor Sydorenko is a participant in numerous Ukrainian and international collective exhibitions, in particular in Mystetskyi Arsenal and American House (Kyiv, Ukraine), Museum of Contemporary Art (Toulouse, France), Galleria Forni (Bologna, Italy), St. Mary's Cathedral (Paris, France), Saatchi Gallery (London, the UK), Black Square Gallery (Chicago, the USA), and at the UN Headquarters (New York, the USA). Numerous personal exhibitions of the artist were held at the National Art Museum of Ukraine (Kyiv), at Yermilov Centre (Kharkiv, Ukraine), Lviv National Gallery of Art named after B. Voznytzkyi and Lviv Palace of Arts (Lviv, Ukraine), State Museum of Arts of the Republic of Kazakhstan named after A. Kasteiev (Almaty, Kazakhstan), KIASMA Centre for Visual Culture (Helsinki, Finland), Woodrow Wilson Centre (Washington, the USA), Black Square Art Gallery (Miami, the USA), as well as at the museums and galleries of France, Great Britain, etc. Victor Sydorenko's works are often presented at international auctions, as well as in numerous private and public collections, including the National Art Museum of Ukraine (Kyiv), Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA (Helsinki, Finland), Yale University, School of Arts, (the USA).

Voloshyn Gallery – a gallery of contemporary art, founded by Max and Julia Voloshyn in 2006. Since its foundation, it was called Mystetska Zbirka Art Gallery and has been specializing in Ukrainian classical art and socialist realism, which is an integral part of the history of Ukrainian art. Subsequently, the gallery has changed the name, expanded its exhibition space and went on to present contemporary and conceptual art.

The modern exhibition hall of the gallery is located in the cultural and historical centre of Kyiv in Tereschenkivska Street, in the old building constructed in 1913.

Voloshyn Gallery is engaged in the development of the artistic community in Ukraine and promotes its integration into the world cultural processes. The gallery represents Ukrainian artists abroad, takes part in international art fairs and projects. It presents works of various generations of artists, works on exclusive terms with such authors as Mykhailo Deyak, Mariia Sulymenko, Volodymyr Kohut. The gallery is a platform for experiments, research, social projects, both for famous artists and those who are still declaring themselves. Voloshyn Gallery also specializes in private sales in the secondary art market of the 20th century and contemporary art, provides consulting services in the field of collecting service management. 

Text and photo provided by Voloshyn Gallery