State of the ART(ist)

The war in Ukraine brings with it devastating consequences. It is destroying livelihoods and setting out to eliminate the cultural identity of Ukraine and its citizens. These dramatic and frightening developments in Eastern Europe compel us to examine the situation of the cultural sector there and of Ukrainian artists in particular. Together with the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ars Electronica intend to offer a space that should enable the expression and documentation of free artistic thought and creativity from around the world. An international jury from the art and culture sectors selected the works which they will draw upon to curate a virtual exhibition relating to this year’s festival motto. All selected State of the ART(ist) projects will be presented at this year’s festival onsite and online, and thus, made accessible to a worldwide audience.

Online Exhibition

Entrance

Gallery Space

This exhibition is co-funded by the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, Republic of Austria.

Clanking, Hammering, Dispute and Gurgling

Andriy Rachinskiy (UA), Daniil Revkovskiy (UA)

A tailings dam is a system of special facilities for storing radioactive, toxic and other non-recyclable waste from mineral processing. The work touches upon the issue of man’s responsibility for natural resources and chimeric forms that the imprint of human activity on Earth may acquire.

D-Normal/V-Essay, online video zine, issues 1–4 (2020–2022)

Floating Projects Collective (HK), Linda CH Lai (HK)

Four issues of an online video zine, 90 works from 200 submissions worldwide, gathered portraits of survival, existential crises and yearnings for what is lost, as alternatives to grand issue analysis. HK-based collective Floating Projects enacts participatory art by marking out the space for free articulation across borders digitally afforded.

Donate

Ivan Svitlychnyi (UA)

The project Donate consists of the site donatewh.com and an installation. The basic ideas here are examining artistic practices as forms of ecological action, creating conditions for viewers to collaborate to form the art object and for participants in the project to analyze their daily habits.

Hip-hop Music to Honor the Syrian Memory

Amir Almuarri (SY)

Hip-hop music to honor the Syrian memory, in particular the memory of the detained and disappeared.

I Will Close the Sky So You Could Breathe

Daria Pugachova (UA)

Performance by a Ukrainian artist dedicated to the war. The artist is under a net on the ground. She finds the strength to get up from her knees. Her solo act is an expression of the will and unbroken spirit of Ukrainians.

Peacock Generation

Karl Ingar Røys & Peacock Generation (MM)

Thangyat is one of the oldest examples of protest song culture in Myanmar. The performances were banned for decades because they often have an anti-authoritarian slant.

Shukhliada Exposition Environment

SVITER art group and Ivan Svitlychnyi (UA)

Shukhliada Exposition Environment is an artist-run space on the internet, and its main mission is to be a platform for independent projects of curators and artists.

Similar Image

fantastic little splash (UA)

Similar Image is an essay film shot in 2019 and presented in 2021. This work seeks to describe a situation in which a person realizes that technology has never opposed nature, but rather was its continuation. This is how a person discovers technology as an element. The sense of impending danger in the film now feels like a hidden hunch.

State of the ART(ist) Live Sessions

Amir Almuarri (SY), Andriy Rachinskiy (UA), Daniil Revkovskyi (UA), Daria Pugachova (UA), DE NE DE (UA), fantastic little splash (UA), Floating Projects Collective (HK), Ivan Svitlychniy (UA), Oksana Chepelyk (UA), Oleksandr Burlaka (UA), SVITER Art Group (UA), The Peacock Generation (MM)

The State of the ART(ist) Initiative is established in collaboration with the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to support artists in Ukraine and around the world, for whom a commitment to peace, freedom and self-determination is not possible locally or is possible only under great threat. Hosted by Christl Baur (DE/AT) and Martin Honzik (AT), the conversations address different segments of the Initiative.

The Big Wild Field Draft

Oleksandr Burlaka (UA)

The drone footage was filmed along the route through the steppe to the north of the Azov Sea according to the text from the 17th century book. The book is a textual description of the map which was used for warfare and trade from the 16th century.

VR Collider

Oksana Chepelyk (UA)

VR Collider on Mozilla Hubs is an architectural structure consisting of four platforms, which hang as a space station in the orbit of planet Earth, capturing and decoding the vibrations of our time. Prypiat Room with its GENESIS project works as a real-time birth-rate monitoring system in Ukraine.

Yellow Line

DE NE DE (UA)

This project presents a unique cultural heritage that has not yet received proper recognition. Today, most of the material objects presented in this project have been destroyed by the Russian army. And the Yellow Line project has become a space where monuments are remembered and preserved.

State of the ART(ist): “Art is neither warlike nor peaceful”

We are convinced that we need art as a space where contradictions can be possible. But how do you deal with these contradictions in times of war? What influence does this have on curation and how does one implement the theme of political persecution in an Open Call?