19 September 2006

Art World Immersion

There has been a lot of activity on the art scene lately which, thanks to Ola, I had the opportunity to be a part of. Last Thursday we were at Gallery RA for Illya Chichkan's KISS exhibit opening. Among the thought provoking artwork -- from the so called "bad boy" of Ukrainian art was a Mayak reel-to-reel tape player dishing out the sound background for the event. It's the first Mayak I've seen. Cool.

On Saturday we had a look at the PinchukArtCenter on the top floors of the Arena City complex by Besserabka. Politics aside, it's a great space and the contemporary Ukrainian, Thai, American, and other art was excellent. The show, in the Arena courtyard was interrupted (...ended) by a full-blown fire. see pictures. It's amazing they got the fire under control with fire extinguishers. It looked almost too big to contain. Victor requested a free 100gm to the "khloptsi" that put the fire out. No lawyers or insurance types to be found.

On Sunday the L'art people opened Berezhynsky (sp?) Gallery (Rybalska 22 in Pechersk). It's a great space that's part of an old armory renovated in a modern, minimalistic way. On display where Chichkan's (again) monkey headed men and some interesting burned wood art from Kyril Protsenko. We took the kids to this daytime event and enjoyed the after-party on the terrace inside the armory courtyard. Romchyk patiently waited for more sushi to come out to the furshet table while Maya and Kalyna did improvised gymnastics/dancing on the stage. No fires.

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