Sense of Safety

August 29 — November 17, 2024

The international art project

YermilovCentre in Kharkiv, Ukraine

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“Sense of Safety” is an international art project highlighting the core exhibition of the same name in the YermilovCentre in Kharkiv, Ukraine surrounded by an open network of more than 20 cross-institutional events across 12 countries united as a “Bridges of Solidarity”. The project emerges from the urgent need to respond to the dire situation in Kharkiv, in North-East Ukraine, around 50 kilometers from the Russian border and subjected to daily shelling.

The idea of the project is to emphasize Kharkiv as an important part of the global world, its cultural, scientific and political importance, to draw the whole world into Kharkiv and Kharkiv into the world by promoting the exchange of connections, information, togetherness and interdependency.

The heart of the project was driven by the fact that in the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the YermilovCentre occasionally turned out to be a real shelter for the artistic community. Nevertheless, it has never ceased its professional activity.

Structure of The International Art Project Sense Of Safety

Sense of Safety exhibition: The exhibition in the YermilovCentre is featuring works from 31 individual artists and collectives representing over 10 countries, including a significant percentage of new commissions. The exhibition represents a wide range of artistic practices and media such as video, painting, photography, installation, sculpture, participatory practices and site-specific works among others. The exhibition is built around the ambivalence of the concept of safety, which has been profoundly redefined by the war. It also touches upon the idea that safety is understood not only as a feeling, but above all as an infrastructure of care, communication as a safe place, supported by vulnerable bodies, by the efforts of people, communities, and institutions. The ambivalence of safety is broken through the ideas of post-traumatic in-growth and the desire for routine actions as safe-gaining. The exhibition demonstrates different perspectives and modalities of understanding and perception of safety — from children's rituals to educational practices, from the search for self-stabilization and self-soothing to collective creative action.

The Bridges of Solidarity: One of the main conceptual axes of the project is the idea of interdependence and mutual connectedness, which is embodied in re-imagining of the exhibition as a medium through experimentation, expanded forms pulling Kharkiv outwards and other geographical locations into Kharkiv. Aiming to counter the isolation imposed by the war, it integrates online and offline events into a unified space — The Bridges of Solidarity, involving more than 20 both well established and grassroot partner institutions (ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany, nGbK, Berlin, Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, Roma Community Center in Warsaw, Bouillon Group in Tbilisi, Cobra Museum, Amstelveen, the Netherlands etc.). Designed to act as bridges, the series of events facilitates two-way interaction and connection between the international community and Kharkiv. These events aim to foster solidarity and mutual support.

Main Idea of the Project

The main topic of the project is built around the ambivalence of the concept of safety, which has been profoundly redefined by the war. It also touches upon the idea that safety is understood not only as a feeling, but above all as an infrastructure of care, communication as a safe place, supported by vulnerable bodies, by the efforts of people, communities, and institutions. The ambivalence of safety is broken through the ideas of post-traumatic in-growth and the desire for routine actions as safe-gaining. The aim of the project is to demonstrate different perspectives and modalities of understanding and perception of safety — from children's rituals to educational practices, from the search for self-stabilization and self-soothing to collective creative action. “The Sense of Safety” project also seeks to create lasting connections and support mechanisms between Kharkiv and the international community.

By fostering these gestures of solidarity, the project reintroduces Kharkiv as part of the world heritage. It is the city of arts, science and technology with Nobel Prize winners physicist Lev Landau, biologist Ilya Mechnikov and economist Semen Kuznets, avant garde artists Borys Kosarev and Vasyl Yermilov, Hasselblad Award Winner Boris Mikhailov, Oscar Winner Mstyslav Chernov among others. And still Kharkiv continues to be a grand city — from avant-garde thought to the cutting-edge physics essential for the Large Hadron Collider, it is a place where the fight for democratic values is happening in real-time.

The International Coalition of Cultural Workers in Solidarity with Ukraine

Sense of Safety exhibition artists list:

Olena Afanasieva & Max Afanasyev, Francis Alÿs, Andreas Angelidakis, Babi Badalov, Sergey Bratkov, Danilo Correale, Uli Golub, Thomas Hirschhorn, Nadira Husain, Taras Kamennoy, Alina Kleytman, Vitalii Kokhan, Dmytro Kolomoitsev, Yulia Kostereva & Yuriy Kruchak, Vladyslav Krasnoshchok, Karen Lancel & Hermen Maat, Lauren Lee McCarthy, Katya Lesiv, Iryna Loskot, Kateryna Lysovenko, Pavlo Makov, Boris Mikhailov, Rhona Mühlebach, Ahmet Öğüt, Mark Požlep, Karina Synytsia, Stas Volyazlovsky, Kateryna Yermolayeva, Anna Zvyagintseva, *foundationСlass, _mediaklub

Sense of Safety exhibition curatorial team:

Tatiana Kochubinska, Aleksander Komarov, Maryna Konieva, Antonina Stebur, Maxim Tyminko

Concept of the project:

The International Coalition of Cultural Workers in Solidarity with Ukraine, YermilovCentre & Maryna Konieva

Supported by:

V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, the Danish Cultural Institute, Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung, Nordic Council of Ministers Office in Lithuania, Goethe Institute Ukraine & Nürnberger Haus, Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands in Ukraine, Grynyov Art Collection, Stedley Art Foundation

Bridges of Solidarity partners:

ABA Air Berlin Alexanderplatz; Asortymentna Kimnata; Bouillon art group; Center for Post Conflict Studies; City of Women; Colaboradio/Freie Radios; Domie; Fundacja w Stronę Dialogu; Galeria Arsenal Bialystok; Hearitfullness Kharkiv; ICA-Sofia; LICHTFEST Leipzig & Revolutionale festival; Museum Cobra; MUSIK DER JAHRHUNDERTE & Platform- В; National Gallery of Art, Lithuania; nGbk; OFF - biennale; PLACCC International Festival of Site-specific Art and Art in Public Space; Colaboradio and FR-BB; Radio ABA's Air SALON; ROZENSTRAAT – a rose is a rose is a rose; Schlosslichtspiele Light Festival Karlsruhe; THE VOID; ZKM

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