Main image: Palyanytsya by Zhanna Kadyrova

"Fragmented Evidence" features works from the collection of the Biruchiy Residence, the largest contemporary art residency, which operated on the Biruchiy Peninsula in the Azov Sea from 2006 and continued its work in Europe after the Russian occupation of the peninsula in February 2022.

The debut exhibition in the United States showcases artworks by 17 Ukrainian artists, including Zhanna Kadyrova, Vlada Ralko, and Volodymyr Budnyk.

BIRUCHIY is the largest and longest-running international contemporary art residency located on the same name peninsula of Azov Sea in Ukraine that was founded in 2006 and for 18 years if its existence has united more than 300 authors and 14 art groups from 19 countries worldwide: Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, Spain, Russia, Great Britain, USA, the Republic of Belarus, Australia, Canada, Israel, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Kazakhstan. After the full-scale invasion the residency’s team continued its operation in the West of Ukraine, then moved to Poland and Germany, presented several shows of Ukrainian artists in Europe and now debuted in the United States.

Fragmented Evidence presents paintings, sculptures, prints, video and photo documentation that are a part of the BIRUCHIY art collection.

The artworks shown at the Fragmented Evidence have miraculously "survived" at the beginning of war in times of Bucha’s occupation in Kyiv region. Being stored in a warehouse that fortuitously did not burn down, the BIRUCHIY archive was in contact with Russian soldiers. Some other artworks of the collection were vandalized, burned, broken or stolen. This story as well as the narration about the destroyed home of the project curator Olena Speranska and founder of Biruchiy Gennadiy Kozub are shown in the documentary by film director Ivan Sautkin (Babylon’ 13).

The digital collages by professor Sergei Sviatchenko who lives and works in Denmark were created as a reflection to the first photos that were taken at the apartment after de-occupation in April 2022. A photo-project of Vera Blansh shows in detail how the artists were helping to clear debris and fragments from live ammunition and missiles, the fragments of destroyed life.

Paintings were created during the art residency’s program BIRUCHIY at the coast of Azov Sea after the annexation of Crimea and the beginning of Donbass war in 2015 until 2021 – at the last pre-war residency in Prymorsk. Located in the Southern part of Ukraine, these territories have been under occupation of the Russian troops since February 2022.

Presented photo documentation include both site-specific installations on the coast of Azov Sea and the day-to-day art residencies life, exhibitions, artist-talks, lectures, art projects in Ukraine, Italy, Poland and Montenegro showing the path through the peaceful to the wartime in 2006-2023.

Evidence of demolition is supported by the documentary photos of Oleksandr Glyadelov and Maxim Dondyuk who were among the first photographers’ group allowed to enter de-occupied territories of Ukraine fixing the truth, war crimes, facts of violence and destruction.

Sautkin’s video "Kadyrova’s Palianytsia" shows the work of famous Ukrainian artist and permanent BIRUCHIY resident Zhanna Kadyrova on the project "Palianytsia" (means bread, typically a large round wheat bread, baked in an oven) made of river stones found in Transcarpathia in March 2022. This conceptual charity art project helps to defend Ukraine’s lands as all the funds raised from sales are forward to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The artworks presented in the exposition are from the sculptural installation by Kadyrova that were already shown during the 59th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia in Italy by Galleria Continua, in solo and group shows in Germany, Brazil, Poland, the United Arab Emirates, France and USA.

The exposition includes artworks of contemporary Ukrainian artist and curator Lesia Khomenko created in 2022-2023 courtesy of the Fridman Gallery, New York. The author works deeply with the study of the state of war by means of figurative and abstract painting expressing her own experience of being a wife of the sound artist and BIRUCHIY resident Max Robotov who changed his career to become a soldier in the Ukrainian army.

‘’More than an exhibition, this art project demonstrates both my personal story and a collective artists’ experience in peaceful, fruitful Ukraine and in times of this tragic historical moment of war." – comments Olena Speranska , project curator, art books compiler, vice-president of the NGO “Contemporary Art Researchers Union”, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine and Director of the non-profit NGO “Ukrainian Contemporary Art Platform Inc.”, New York, USA. – "It is a fragmented representation of the long story of our art residency development in Ukraine and its transformation after full-scale invasion."

Participated by the worldwide artists BIRUCHIY was called “the island of freedom” where the well-known artists were sharing their experience with the younger generation.

Experimented sound laboratory, DJ sets, music festivals, open artists’ studios, modern gallery, daily artists talks’, new collaborations, open airs and site-specific installations – all this was joined by a spirit of freedom and unique warm atmosphere of Azov Sea and Azov-Syvash National Park, where now, the russian troops are destroying infrastructure, causing ecocide, mine the fields and coastal areas…

"The lives of all Ukrainians have been changed fundamentally. There are no one Ukrainian who didn’t lose someone at war, no one who didn’t felt it, and, unfortunately the war continues daily taking hundreds of lives, causing genocide of Ukrainians and trying to destroy and rewrite our history and culture. That’s why it is critically important to talk about war and our rich and modern Ukrainian culture, to show the difference between the peaceful life and the life in war, to fix war crimes. As we don’t want the culture of destruction – we want our Liberty, Freedom and Independent development."

Participants:

Vera Blansh (Kyiv), Volodymyr Budnikov (Kyiv), Anastasiya Budnikova (Kyiv), Kateryna Buchatska (Kyiv), Maxim Dondyuk (Lviv), Oleksandr Glyadelov (Kyiv), Zhanna Kadyrova (Kyiv), Natalia Karpinska (Kyiv), Lesia Khomenko (Kyiv), Tetiana Malinovska (Kharkiv), Alise Nikitinová (Prague, Czech Republic), Vlada Ralko (Kyiv), Ivan Sautkin (Kyiv), Andriy Stegura (Uzhorod), Sergei Sviatchenko (Viborg, Denmark), Artem Volokitin (Kharkiv), Albina Yaloza (Kyiv).

"Fragmented Evidence"

August 24 – September 24, 2023

Ukrainian Institute of America
(2 East 79th Street, New York, NY, 10075)