Category: Residency

Kyiv, Ukraine
July 10 – 31, 2017

Diana Ukhina is a female curator and researcher From Bishkek. She is director of the Laboratoria C. Laboratoria C is a space for art, meanings production and interdisciplinary research practice.

During her stay Ukhina made a research on post-soviet city transformation through exploration of urban space in Kiev.

The research that Diana Ukhina made during her residence has resulted in text Symbolic and physical transformation of Soviet monuments Revolution Fighters and Friendship of Nations in Bishkek and Kiev

The meeting Artistic practices in investigation of the city with Diana Ukhina took place on 26 of July in the Gallery at DIM MK. Diana told about the projects of Laboratoria ci as well as about the context of contemporary art and investigation of the city in Kyrgyzstan.

Diana Ukhina introduced methods used by Laboratoria ci for investigation of the city such as: learning of history and transformation of the districts, drifting and photodrifting, and mental maps.  For the Laboratoria ci artistic practices in investigation of the city are the strategy of reopening of the city, and revealing of the senses that give its deeper perception / understanding. Participants of the laboratory consider art as critical discipline which connects research, theory and education, where the transition from an object to an event, to a process, to learning, to immersion is important.

Kyiv, Ukraine
July 6 – 27, 2017

krëlex zentr is imaginary artistic institution based in Almaty, Kazakhstan. krëlex zentr is interested in the intersections of curatorial, artistic, activist and research approaches and practices. “We are trying to experiment with hybridity in its various manifestations. The organization is imaginary, as it is adapted to life in the zones with institutional deficiency. We believe that art in its broadest sense is the key to answering the most important existential questions related to life, death and other exciting projects that are so pleasant to do in the moments of leisure.” In recent years, two artists from Kazakhstan Maria Vilkovisky and Ruthie Jenrbekova have represented the krëlex zentr on a semi-official level.

During their residency in Kyiv, Maria Vilkovisky and Ruthie Jenrbekova explored self-organized forms of artistic life, especially those related to emancipatory, intersectional, decolonial and queer issues. It was important for them not only to show such forms, but also to investigate the conditions in which they are shaped.

Shalazine – the self-published journal was the result of the residency. Shalazine’s first issue focuses on the topic of of self-organization in contemporary art.

On July 13th, krëlex zentr gave a presentation at the Gallery of DIM MK, where Maria and Ruthie told: whom the krëlex zentr represents of, how do they understand of Creolization, what artistic traditions they are trying to appropriate, what is the concept of ​​emancipation of the imaginary, and why magical feminism is needed.

On July 25th in the A. Fomin’s Kiev Botanical Garden krëlex zentr held a group therapy session on open air All people are philosophers. Participants were invited to share their personal experience of reading difficult texts. As the leader of the session, Ruthie Jenrbekova made a brief review of her own cognitive failures.