Rumble. Patter. Flutter: Taras Kovach’s Personal Exhibition in the Mala Gallery of the Mystetskyi Arsenal
The “Rumble. Patter. Flutter” exhibition is a personal project by the artist Taras Kovach. It welcomes its visitors in the space of thickets and ground piles depicted through painting and video installations. Created in 2023-2024, this project archives the author’s observation of the transformations of nature within the city during the war and how a new ecosystem of green zones arises, becoming both a shelter for the military and a combat area.
With the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Kyiv was partially mined with explosives, and fortifications were erected in the squares and parks as well as forests adjacent to the city. However, as soon as the spring of 2022 came, nature began to reclaim these territories of Ukraine’s capital. Weeds sprouted through the dug-up soil among the barricades and trenches, weaving into dense growth. Today, in the city’s public space, there are fewer and fewer traces of the former ramparts and firing positions. Most of the fortified areas, which were located both in the city center and the residential neighborhoods of Kyiv, have already been smoothed out, and some of them have turned into flower beds.
The array of paintings within the exposition immerses visitors in the landscape of the green zone. Disguising, a person can easily match the surrounding thickets here. In the areas of intense hostilities, the so-called “shrubberies” take on an apocalyptic appearance. They are jumbled roots, tree trunks, and snags, which still serve as concealed positions for the military. The painting pieces mainly depict twilight when the sense of space, planes, distances, and shapes melt. Everything becomes an indivisible dynamic environment where there is no longer awareness of specific objects or the individual components the space consists of. Some landscapes which used to perform a functional role, zoning agricultural territories, have gained strategic importance during the war. The buffer strip or hedge itself acquires agency as battles are fought precisely for control over them.
The video work documents the experience of Taras Kovach artistically interacting with the urban green zone. The landscape’s key element is an artificial object created particularly for filming purposes. Camouflaging itself as the surroundings, at some point, it suddenly begins to move, subverting the integral impression of the environment. The object refers to the trenches and dugouts hastily constructed of sandbags, earth, and wood in Kyiv in late winter of 2022. Over just a few months, those were swallowed up by bushes and became eerie silhouettes in the city’s public space. The moving object conceptualised by the artist distorts the usual outline of the landscape and the way we commonly perceive it. Being aware that there is something unknown present within the landscape and that it was staying hidden all along makes us feel disturbed. The object becomes the leading feature in the entire project.
Text by Hanna Tsyba
Curator: Hanna Tsyba
Manager: Andrii Myroshnychenko
Mentoring: Natasha Chychasova
The exhibition will open at 12:00 p.m. on October 10 and last until November 3, 2024, in the Mala Gallery of the Mystetskyi Arsenal (Lavrska St., 10).
Working hours:
Wednesday to Sunday, from 12:00 to 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.
Taras Kovach was born on July 3, 1982 in Uzhhorod. He studied at the Faculty of Design at the Adalbert Erdeli Art College (2002) and the Graphic Arts Faculty at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (NAFAA; 2008).
The artist works with graphic art while also creating objects and installations. He is a lecturer at the Department of Graphic Arts at NAFAA. Taras engages in activities related to preserving and developing creative workshops at 33 Soshenka Street. Since June 2022, he has been actively involved in volunteer construction battalion “Dobrobat.” They deal with reconstructing settlements in Ukraine, which suffered due to the full-scale Russian invasion. He lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine.
One of the core subjects of his artistic projects is the public landscape, the transformation of the urban environment by its inhabitants, and the functioning of local communities. Studying the everyday living environment, the author works with the concept of centre and periphery, often combining and juxtaposing these social contexts. After the start of the full-scale invasion, he continued to explore the transformation of the urban environment and turned to the subject of “nature” during the war.
EDUCATION
2011 — postgraduate, National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (graphic department)
2008 — MA in graphic arts, National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, Kyiv
2002 — BA in graphic design, Uzhgorod College of Art
RESIDENCIES
2023 — The Sitterwerk Foundation's Studio House residency, Sankt Gallen, Switzerland
2019 — SWAP: UK/Ukraine residency programme for artists and curators:
Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Lumsden, Aberdeenshire, UK
Dundee Contemporary Arts Print Studio (DCA), Dundee, UK
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020 — «Untitled», National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, Kyiv
2018 — «Netri», Closer Art Center, Kyiv
2013 — «Noise», Scherbenko Art Centre, Kyiv
2012 — «Frontman», Bottega gallery, Kyiv;
2012 — «Wallpapers for Soshenko», Project space gallery, Kyiv
2012 — «Dream of the butterfly», ECCA «Tea factory», Odessa
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 — «Home beyond the dawn», MUSA Museo de las Artes, Guadalajara, Мexico
2023 — «Meanwhile, in Khanenko house», The Khanenko Museum, Kyiv
2022 — «Preserving the shape», Galerie Raum mit Licht, Vienna, Austria
2022 — «Unfolding Landscapes», Art and History Museum Brussels, Belgium
2022 — «Unfolding Landscapes», Silkeborg Bad, Denmark
2022 — «Contemporary Ukrainian and Italian printmaking in dialogue», Casa della Memoria, Milan.
2021 — «A Radically Different Society», Ukrainian Institute, New York
2021 — «Brave Factory Festival», Меtrobud, Kyiv
2020 — «Expedition # 2», as part of a series of performative actions committed within the publication of the book «Joseph Beuys. Everyone is an artist», Soshenko 33, Kyiv
2020 — «The Imprint. Ukrainian Printmaking of the 20th-21st Centuries», Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv
2020 — «Trespassers Will Be Detected?», SWAP: UK/Ukraine residency programme final exhibition, Dnipro Center for Contemporary Culture, Dnipro
2019 — «Ukrainian Cross-section», Ploscha Rynok 42, Lviv
2019 — «Dismantelment», Nadie Nunce Nadi No gallery, within the frame of Hybrid festival, Madrid
2019 — «Artistic means», in collaboration with Anna Sorokovaya, Detector Gallery, Ivanofrankivsk
2018 — «Permanent Revolution. Ukrainian art today», Ludwig Museum, Budapest
2017 — «mocumenta», within the frame of The Kyiv International — Kyiv Biennial, Soshenko 33 art studios, Kyiv
2017 — «Soshenko x Tokonoma», within the frame of documenta 14, Kassel, Germany
2017 — «Shape the Unknown», within the frame of documenta 14, Kassel, Germany
2017 — Festival of Young Ukrainian Artists «Today That Never Happened», Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv
2016 — «De ne de», Institute of Scientific, Technical and Economic Information («UFO» building), Kyiv
2015 — «Museum collection. Ukrainian contemporary art 1985-2015. From private collections» Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv
2014 — «Awareness of opportunities» in collaboration with Anna Sorokovaya, Mala Gallery of the Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv
2014 — «Ukrainian landscape. From other side of despair…», Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv
2014 — «Mobile print shop», within the frame of «Zahoplennya» project by Izolyatsia, Kyiv
SELECTED CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2021 — «50.5234851, 30.4378762» exhibition within the residency for students of NAOMA, Soshenko 33, Kyiv, co-curator
2021 — Program of residencies for students of NAOMA, Soshenko 33, Kyiv, co-curator
2019 — «Decommunia_tion», Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz, The weissensee school of art and design, Soshenko 33 art studios, residency and exhibition, co-curator
2017 — SWAP UK/Ukraine Artist Residency Programme, the residency at Soshenko 33 art studios, co-curator
2016 — «Slavkeramprodukt. Working with material», exhibition, Local History Museum, Slovyansk, East Ukraine, co-curator
2016 — SWAP UK/Ukraine Artist Residency Programme, the residency at Soshenko 33 art studios, co-curator
2015 — «Common frontier» interdisciplinary project, within the frame of Kyiv Biennial — The school of Kyiv, Soshenko 33 art studios, Kyiv, co-curator
Hanna Tsyba is an independent curator, researcher, and author based in Kyiv, Ukraine. In 2021, Hanna curated a group show “Fast. Easy. Precarious” at the Laboratory of Contemporary Art “Mala Gallery of Mystetskyi Arsenal.” She held the position of Curator and Manager for Public Programs in the PinchukArtCentre (Kyiv) in 2018–2019. As a Visual Culture Research Centre member, she co-curated the 10th edition of the Warsaw Under Construction festival in 2018. In 2017, Hanna curated a “Market” exhibition of the Kyiv Biennial and was the Biennial’s Press and PR Executive. She was an art critic and editor at the Art Ukraine magazine in 2011–2012. Graduated with an MA degree in Cultural Studies from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in 2011.
Since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion into Ukraine, Hanna works as a BBC News journalist in Ukraine.