“One with the other. Spatial Dialogues. Viktoriia Rosentsveih and Asya Harmash”: Mala Gallery of Mystetskyi arsenal presents new exhibition

The Laboratory of Contemporary Art “Mala Gallery of Mystetskyi Arsenal” presents the exhibition “One with the other. Spatial dialogues. Viktoriia Rosentsveih and Asya Harmash” — the fourth exhibition of the project “One with the other. Spatial Dialogues”

The exhibition will be held from March 30 to April 30, 2023.

Within the framework of the exhibition, authors Victoria Rosenzweig and Asya Garmash reflect on the state of waiting that connects their creative practices. The state when time slows down and each of us feels it permanently. This was restless anticipation of a full-scale war, the probability of which was challenging for many to grasp. However, now, in retrospect, it seemed inevitable. These are the viscous and gummy circumstances of searching your art subjects and struggling to comprehend what your artistic practice is. These are unbearable moments when you are waiting for news from the family after the official reports of shelling, waiting for photos of the consequences of the air strikes, to see what survived and what was destroyed by the Russians. It is uncertain and full of bitter hope expectation of the de-occupation of Nova Kakhovka and all of Ukraine.

Within the framework of the exhibition, authors Viktoriia Rosentsveih and Asya Harmash reflect on this state, which links their creative practices. Both artists studied at the Free Graphics Department at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (NAOMA) in Kyiv, which largely determines their style and technical means. However, beyond formal disciplines such as composition, perspective, colour, etc., in the work Viktoriia and Asya always focused on working with what is around them – the urban environment and the Soviet heritage in it. The full-scale invasion of Russia changed both artists’ ways of seeing things and their attitude to their practices.

After February 24 of last year, Viktoriia focused on the depiction of the Kherson region in the war and occupation chronicles from the words of her relatives, but again, mostly recording the tragic changes in the body of the city. Asya, in turn, admits that for a long time, she has been romanticising the aesthetics of Soviet architecture in a way. February 24 provoked a complete reassessment of her practice, and from the summer of 2022, she began to create works, diving deep within herself and working with images of rootedness, time, and what disappears.

Another important aspect of the exhibition is involving small home-made publications compiled by authors, so-called zines. These self-printed and stitched books are something distinctly material and very intimate. They are something you can put in your pocket when going out, lend to a friend, or leave in your favourite coffee shop. They are handed over spontaneously, avoid the usual distribution schemes, and often find their readers randomly. Viktoriia notes that in recent years there have been a lot of zines in her life – both others’ and her own as well as her participation in various collective zines. Such a trend seems to be quite crucial for the Ukrainian alternative book culture and the networking between hermetic creative communities.

Exhibition participants: Viktoriia Rosentsveih, Asya Harmash.
Curators of the exhibition: Natasha Chychasova, Andrii Myroshnychenko, Anastasia Garazd.

The exhibition was created in partnership with Art Arsenal Community NGO as part of the project supported by the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy to Ukraine. The views of the authors do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Government.

At the Laboratory of Contemporary Art “Mala Gallery of Mystetskyi Arsenal” the exhibition will be held from March 30 to April 30, 2023.

Opening hours:
Tuesday-Sunday, 12:00 – 19:00
Free admission

❗️❗️ We care about everyone’s safety, so in case of an air raid alert, the exhibition will be closed. At this time, you can go to the nearest shelter. The exhibition will start working after the end of an air raid alert.
❗️In case of emergency power outages, we will additionally inform you about the opening hours on our social media.

Viktoriia Rosentsveih (Nova Kakhovka, Kherson region) is a Ukrainian artist who works with graphics and sometimes complements it with new media. Recently, she has been actively experimenting with the form of artwork, combining her searches with traditional graphics. She is interested in urbanism and the interaction between people and city spaces, as well as the presence of Soviet architecture and the meanings of the past in the present. She graduated from the Free Graphics Department at NAOMA. In addition, she was an exchange student in Professor Hendrik Dorgathen’s comics and illustration class at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. She participated in a number of group exhibitions and projects, in particular, in the presentation of “Citizenship Ukraine” at Documenta 15.

Asya Harmash (Kyiv) is a Ukrainian artist who in her practice explores the subject of corporeality, the relationships between people through the visual, and the influence of the appearance of city streets and buildings on society. She works in print and digital graphics, but her main approach to work is mixed media: a combination of acrylic, oil pastel, and black pencil on paper. The artist tends to large formats. Sometimes in her projects, she involves images she came across in old photos from different regions of Ukraine, for example, figures of Boikos and Lemkos (Ukrainian ethnic groups) from the early 20th century, and in this way, adds new meanings to her paintings.

“One with the other. Spatial Dialogues” is a processual project of the Laboratory of Contemporary Art “Mala Gallery of the Mystetskyi Arsenal.” Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia, the Laboratory has begun to collect works about the war by Ukrainian artists — from 2014 till today. This array of works has transformed into an online archive — Ukraine Ablaze. While working on the archive, Laboratory curators realized the importance of recording processes and transformations in artistic practices, which often remain invisible.