At the FeliX Art & Eco Museum in Drogenbos (Belgium), the exhibition “Futuromarennia: Ukraine and the Avant-Garde” has concluded

On September 8th, the “Futuromarennia: Ukraine and the Avant-Garde” exhibition came to an end at the FeliX Art & Eco Museum in Drogenbos (Belgium). Throughout the several months of the exhibition, numerous visitors—local residents, guests from other cities in Belgium and abroad, as well as members of the Ukrainian community in Belgium and Ukrainians assisting refugees in the country—gained new insights into Ukrainian avant-garde art.

“For the past two years, ‘Futuromarennia’ has been traveling across Europe. In fact, this is the first time that our own project, as a complete conceptual ‘cultural product,’ has been presented abroad. This required us to find a new language and imagery to engage audiences not very familiar with Ukrainian culture. The contemporary context—Russian military aggression against Ukraine rooted in Russian imperial ideology—was no less significant. Reflecting on the experience, I can say that the visitors truly understood our messages. Moreover, in Drogenbos, we had the opportunity to connect not only with professional audiences or tourists but also with the local community—ordinary people who emotionally resonated with our story. Clearly, such ‘human’ interaction largely shapes public opinion in support of Ukraine. I must extend special thanks to the FeliX Art & Eco Museum team, who, under the initiative of the museum’s director, Sergio Servellon, organized this project,” said Olha Melnyk, co-curator of the “Futuromarennia: Ukraine and the Avant-Garde” exhibition, summarizing its presentation in Drogenbos (Belgium).

The team at Mystetskyi Arsenal is extremely grateful to the Belgian partners, who not only showed great interest in Ukrainian avant-garde art but also provided significant support to the teams of Ukrainian museums that contributed works from their collections to the exhibition. Thanks to the project organizers, who overcame numerous formal challenges, it was possible to safeguard prominent works of Ukrainian avant-garde art from Mystetskyi Arsenal’s own collection as well as from the collections of partner institutions.

Photos provided by FeliX Art & Eco Museum (Drogenbos, Belgium)

The exhibition featured over 100 original paintings and graphic works. Visitors had the chance to view pieces by renowned Ukrainian artists such as David Burliuk, Oleksandra Ekster, Vadym Meller, Viktor Palmov, and Vasyl Yermylov. The exhibition was complemented by documentary materials and video installations such as “Poetry Painting” and “Our 1920s Shot Down in the 2020s.”

The project “Futuromarennia: Ukraine and the Avant-Garde” is implemented by the FeliX Art & Eco Museum of Contemporary Art and the Mystetskyi Arsenal in partnership with the Museum of Theater, Music, and Cinema Arts of Ukraine, the National Art Museum of Ukraine, the Dnipro Art Museum, the Dovzhenko Centre, the National Research Restoration Center of Ukraine, the Central State Archive-Museum of Literature and Art of Ukraine, the Kharkiv Private Museum of Urban Estate, the Lviv Museum of the History of Religion, Valentyna Kostyukova, and Tetiana Kara-Vasylieva.

Curators: Olha Melnyk, Ihor Oksametny, with the participation of Viktoria Velychko.
Exhibition design: Lera Guievska.
Graphic design: Kostyantyn Martsenkivskyi.