Ortsbezogene Kunst Statement by Lizaveta German
Curating before, during (and after) war: Ukrainian case.
Curating today can be many things, as proved by a good deal of literature on the subject.
In her professional practice, Kyiv-based, temporary Vienna-relocated Lizaveta German has tested many of those “manies”. She started as a trained art historian. Her professional practice covered art writing, a bit of management, a bit of scholar work and plenty of exhibition-making of various shapes and scales: from DIY displays in artists’ basements in Lviv to national festival at 2000 sq metres of Mystetsyi Arsenal museum complex; from cooking spicy Transcarpathian soup in art centre in Dnipro to establishing her own gallery in a trendy neighbourhood in Kyiv. Curating is an adventure, Lizaveta believes. Especially if you dare to choose a free-lancer’s path in Ukraine: a state with a flourishing and diverse art scene that has ever lacked a stable institutional framework, proper state support and international recognition. Or shall we try to treat such circumstances as advantages rather than misfortunes? In Ukraine, as many local art actors strongly believe, one can be a pioneer in almost any field of art work. Absence of institutional memory, proper archiving and state museum for contemporary art bring certain limitations to one’s work, but it also provokes imagination and temptation to start everything from scratch. And requires certain bravery.
In 2021 Lizaveta, together with her fellow co-curators Maria Lanko and Borys Filonenko, won the national competition to represent Ukraine at 59th International Exhibition–La Biennale di Venezia. The chosen project was “Fountain of Exhaustion. Acqua Alta”, an ambitious long-lasting work of artist Pavlo Makov. In mid-February the pavilion team completed the first stage of complicated and costly production of the central installation element. 10 days later russian invasion started. 5 days after russian troops crossed Ukrainian borders, a big box full of irreplaceable bronze elements from Makov’s “Fountain” crossed the EU border in a car trunk of Lizaveta’s colleague Maria.
In another two weeks Lizaveta gave birth to her son, and in late April they both joined the rest of the team to finally open the national pavilion of the country at war. So, yes, curating is an adventure. So far it has brought Lizaveta and her family to Vienna. Here, she has an honour of talking to art students and sharing her story which hopefully may bring inspiration and believe in art as practice that is still able to make meaning to all the mess around.
In her statement, Lizaveta will speak about her most recent experience of producing new exhibitions and of different ways to support Ukrainian artists in times of war. Curating comes from latin curare, which means to care. It seems like a good time to restore the true meaning of this word.
Biography:
Lizaveta German, PhD
Curator and art historian. Co-founder of The Naked Room, Kyiv. Co-curator of the Ukrainian Pavilion, 59th La Biennale di Venezia.
Lizaveta received her MA degree in Art History at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv. In 2016, she received a PhD degree in Art History there. In 2008–2012 she worked as an art manager at several institutions in Kyiv, including Ludmila Bereznitska Gallery, Eidos Arts Foundation, Arts Management agency and Kyiv Sculpture Project. Between 2009 and 2017, she was contributing as an art critic to several Ukrainian media, such as Ukrainska Pravda, Korydor, LB.UA and YourArt. In 2012 she participated at Young Curators Workshop at 7th Berlin Biennial. In 2016 she was placed as a curator-in-residence at Liverpool Biennial, supported by British Council Ukraine. In 2012–2013 she participated in the Curatorial Platform program at PinchukArtCentre. In 2015, together with Olha Balashova she published a book The Art of Ukrainian Sixties (republished in English in 2021). And in 2017 they co-edited Decommunised: Ukrainian Soviet Mosaics book. In 2022 she presented the National Pavilion of Ukraine at Harvard, supported by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Community Renewal Fund, the Davis Center for Eurasian Studies, the Harvard Art Museums, and the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.
Since 2014, Lizaveta has been working with Maria Lanko as a curatorial collective. The duo organised more than 30 exhibitions and collaborated with the leading art institutions in Ukraine, including National Art Museum of Ukraine, Mystetskyi Arsenal, Goethe-Institut, British Council, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ukrainian Institute. In 2015, they opened a show in Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe, as a part of Kyiv Biennial–School of Kyiv project. In 2017 Maria and Lizaveta co-curated (together with Kateryna Filyuk) Festival of Young Ukrainian Art at Mystetskyi Arsenal, the first all-Ukrainian biennial for contemporary art under the state support. In 2015–2021 they tailored and supervised Contemporary Art educational programme for artists and art managers at Kyiv Academy of Media Arts (together with Olha Balashova). Since 2020, Maria and Lizaveta have been teaching at Skvot.IO on-line school, System of Contemporary Art course. In 2021 their project with the artist Pavlo Makov (co-curated by Borys Filonenko), Fountain of Exhaustion. Acqua Alta was chosen to represent Ukraine at 59th La Biennale di Venezia. Beside the national pavilion, in 2022 Lizaveta co-curated Piazza Ucraina project and Decolonising Art. Beyond the Obvious interdisciplinary programme as part of International Art Exhibition.
