Permanent Revolution. Ukrainian Art Today

«Permanent Revolution» was an exhibition of Ukrainian contemporary art, where the artworks of Ukrainian artists in different generations were shown. This was the first large presentation of Ukrainian contemporary art in Hungary and a rare occasion to investigate the very liquid Ukrainian art scene that is still a blind spot on the culture map of Europe. Ukraine became an independent country, it resisted oligarchic capitalism and survived the three waves of mass protests, two revolutions, war in the East, annexation of the Crimean peninsula, neurotic and late decommunization over the last 30 years. Since the 1980s we can speak about formation of the new art in Ukraine, which has radically severed with practices of social realism and evolved with international cultural process synchronously. Certainly, the generation of the late 80s and early 90s has been the most striking occurrence in Ukrainian art since the early 20th century, when the Stalinist terror of the 1930s crushed art(ists).

A past post-Soviet identity of the 1990s and 2000s was gradually replaced by a rethinking of the political issues in art, increasing the level of understanding of the social fabric and interest in activist practices. This coincided with a technological and Internet revolution, forming a new artists' generation that are focused on the absolutely new meanings, audience and goals.

«Permanent Revolution» was obsessed with the question «what is contemporary art today?» in the specific coordinate system, where the people with an amazing regularity are building the barricade on the main square of their country, with beauty elements and elementary conceptual ideas that could cause great envy among the greatest world-famous artists*.

The «Permanent Revolution. Ukrainian Art Today» project was organized by Ludwig Museum and Zenko Foundation. Curators: Alisa Lozhkina, Julia Fabenyi, Konstantin Akinsha.

*press release for exhibition.