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S O S K A G R O U P C V
SOSka group were organized in 2005 by Mykola Ridnyi (born 1985), Serhiy Popov (born 1978), Ganna Kriventsova (born 1985) in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Since 2005 SOSka group runs gallery-laboratory in Kharkiv - independent platform for developing local culture sphere.
In 2008-2009 group organized Program Class for collaboration with students of local academies of culture. In 2009 – SOSka group curated international exhibition “The New History. Contemporary art from Eastern Europe in Ukrainian traditional museum”. Kharkiv museum of art. Exhibition was banned by directorate of the museum.
Artists of SOSka group participated in several residence programs and workshops: KulturKontakt Austria, Vienna (2008), ArtsLink, New York / Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe (2010), Sommerakademie, Centre Paul Klee, Bern (2011)
Selected exhibitions:
2011 – “The Global Contemporary. Art Worlds After 1989”. Curated by Peter Weibel, Andrea Buddensieg. ZKM / Centre for art and media. Karlsruhe
2011 – “A Complicated Relation. Part II”. Curated by Martin Shibli. Kalmar Konstmuseum. Kalmar
2011 – “Impossible community”. Curated by Victor Misiano. Moscow Museum of modern art. Moscow
2011 – “An Elusive Object of Art”. Curated by Iara Boubnova. Galerie Dana Charkasi. Vienna
2010 – “Land of human rights”. Poster campaign. Association for contemporary art <Rotor>. Graz.
2010 – “Memorial”. Solo exhibition. Curated by Francesca Solero. Project WE. Turin.
2010 – “Intercool 3.0”. Curated by Birgit Richard, Inke Arns. Hartware MedienKunstVerein / HMKV / Dortmunder U. Dortmund.
2010 – “IF. Ukrainian art in transition”. Curated by Ekaterina Degot. Musem for contemporary art. Perm.
2009 – “Wakefield Meadows”. Curated by Anca Mihulet. Pavilion UniCredit. Bucharest.
2009 – “Barter”. Solo exhibition. Curated by Vesna Krstich and Nikolas Drosos. The Cardboard gallery, Dumbo art centre. Brooklyn, New York
2009 – “The future was yesterday”. Curated by R.E.P. group and Loose Associations. Student center gallery. Zagreb.
2009 - “Il Castello di Rivara apre le cantine”. Curated by Francesca Solero. Centro d’Arte Contemporanea Castello di Rivara. Turin
2009 – “Curated by”. Gallery Hubert Winter / Vienna fair. Vienna
2009 – “The New History”. Curated by SOSka group. Kharkiv museum of art. Kharkiv
2008 – “New Print Politick: Post-Soviet Politics and Contemporary Art”. Ukrainian Institute of modern art. Chicago.
2008 – “Artists in residence”. Art point at KulturKontaktAustria. Vienna.
2008 – “Dreamers”. Solo exhibition. Project Room, PinchukArtCentre. Kyiv.
2008 - «Grabbing at straws». Curated by Negative Capability (Chris Sharp, Joanna Fiduccia). Guenzani studio. Milan.
2008 – “68:08. Politics on streets”. Project Fabrica. Moskow.
2007 – “The Art World”. Gallery Feinkost. Berlin.
2007 – “Communities. Young Ukrainian art”. Gallery Arsenal. Byalystok.
2007 – “Critically in between”. Curated by Viktor Misiano in frame of exhibition cycle “Progressive nostalgia”. Art-Athens. Athens.
2006 – «Videoabend». Gallery Stadtpark. Krems.
2006 – «Team colors». Gallery «F.A.I.T». Krakow.
2006 – «New communities». Caucasus biennale of contemporary art. Tbilisi.
2005 – «XXX». Gallery-laboratory SOSka. Kharkiv.
2005 – «SOSka artists». Gallery-laboratory SOSka. Kharkiv.
W O R K S
“Memorial”
2009
Multimedia installation: vertical video projection, 3 light boxes in variable size
Heroes of the video are old women who are the keepers of authentic ritual of the funeral crying. Ritual is a professional work in their case. Countrymen periodically invite crying women to funeral for mourning the dead man, paying them money or food stuffs.
Shortly before shootings the project, we prepared a slide-show for lecture on history of art of a XX century, having selected the conditional beginning of contemporary art - the Dushamp’s “Fountain”. A symbol of the end as well as highest point of commercialization has been designated “a diamond skull” by Hirst. The global economic crisis catalyzed falling of the market of art is a push to reconsideration of values in history of arts. The social context staticizes the vital issues. Whether there can be a contemporary art outside of the market? Whether it is possible to speak about death of art? Wishing to give to some questions the metaphorical form; we have asked village crying women to make ritual above images of art of the left century.
“Barter”
2007
Video, 6:08 mins., c-print, 90X130cm
”Barter” devoted to questions of interaction of the contemporary art and the market. In village near Kharkov artists arrange barter auction where suggest local residents to get barter - in exchange ”prints” of pictures of stars of the contemporary art (among them are Andy Warhol, Sam Taylor-Wood, Cindy Sherman) for products of an agriculture. In each case the price is established by buyers. And then the owner of purchase finds to it a place in the world: among photos of relatives or on a blast furnace. Estimating of brand products, the rural system of values replaces the sights accepted by developed capitalism at eternal themes of beauty, the nature, family, showing alternative vision.
Distance
2011
Installation
The Distance project accurately recreates within a Museum space the interior of the legendary gallery laboratory SOSka that existed in Kharkov in 2005 – 2010. Thus, the artists have given a new life to their gallery, and within this new gallery they have put on display four photos, in which the 'members of SOSka are captured in the company of artists' of worldwide renown: Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, and Takashi Murakami. So the world of a willing if imposed marginality meets the world of professional accomplishment and commercial success. The Distance project brings together two opposite poles of artistic community and makes evident their incompatibility, predictable but none the less almost grotesque. Thus, the very idea of artistic community is literally exposed as fiction. As the authors elaborate: 'The contact that the pictures capture is a fiction of friendship; at the same time, it speaks of the impossibility of communication between different segments of contemporary art and contemporary society at large. In this project SOSka raises a series of questions: about the artist’s need to choose a model of activity in the cultural sphere, about the role of communities and the relative nature of authority within the functional system of contemporary art.'
http://www.ic.mmoma.ru/en/artists/soska/
“Police Academy”
2010
Three-channel video installation, photography series
"Serving by honor" - the official slogan of the Ukrainian police. Today, police of many countries accused of many things: corruption, abuse of authority and in an unsanctioned aggression. In this context, the wording of the slogan requires clarification of standards of honor and responsibility. The policeman is so problematic figure in the modern society that, one way or another, the question arises: what is the motivation for young people to choose the way of service in the Police?
Insider investigation of the social group represents artifacts, where the characters are still trying to move in a carefree youth of inertia while playing in the execution of orders. Soon, the heroes have to forget about the youth of dreamy uncertainty and undergo formatting in the person who just doing the bidding.
“Forest”
2009
Four-channel video installation
Video installation Forest is sequentially continuing and extending topics of the original Dreamers project. Scenic visuality of the work is focused on recreation of young people; - slam dance of teenagers in which they push off against each other in a crowd of rock-session. Moving bodies comprise a conditional mechanism, where their space symbolizes aggression and danger. A documentary shooting presenting video series draws a spectator to the empiric moment of reality, suggesting seizing a position of insiders and empathizing with the situation. An existing subcultural game, where a border between convention and reality of aggression disappears, can be metaphorically comparable with contradiction of symbolism of wild nature. Bird is a symbol of piece; its song is associated with unconcern and calmness. Without visual confirmation songs of forest birds cause a deprived sense of anxiety and danger. Pair comparison of audio and video series denotes a dual nature of current processes in modern society.
“Dreamers”
2008
Video, 2 mins., c-print, 100x150 cm
The «Dreamers» project presents a new type of characters, young people whose individuality is concealed due to their belonging to teenage subculture. However the essence of the work doesn’t resolve to contemplation of generation problems only. Kievan «emo kids» represent a metaphorical reflection of a permanent period of Ukrainian social environment existence as well as the pan-European one. The abeyance and instability designates the post-Soviet realia of 2000-s having replaced the negativism unambiguity of the previous decade. Uncertainty in the own platform illustrative of today’s Ukrainian society, as well as the world economic situation illusiveness, determines the type of a day-dreamer hero in the younger generation. Reciting their interests in the quality of a TV casting participants the youth unconscientiously represent participants of an exciting migration with no particular destination, revolutioners expressing a protest that has no vector.
“I have a dream / I don’t know”
2009
Two-channel video installation
You often have difficulties trying to be in touch with your country when travelling or staying abroad. Skype used to be the most convenient mean of communication when we were in residence program for artists in Austria. Indeed, the connection troubles happened all the time, the picture disagreed with the sound, the answer of a person whom you talked to was blurred in time. These made the impression of unreality – as if the dialogue is replaces by the artificially juxtaposed monologues.
These are two video-interviews with Ukrainian teenagers and Austrian schoolchildren. The dreams about the future of the first-ones are mixed with the ideas about Ukraine by the latter in a way that reminds the Skype conversation. The telebridge game shows that there is no real communication between young Ukrainians and Europeans – there are only two monologues: the dreams about Europe meet the everlasting “Ukraine? I don’t know”.
“THEY trapped to the street”
2006
Documentation of action
SOSka group took to the streets of Kharkiv and Kiev with a series of intervencion actions on the eve of parliamentary elections Ukraine in 2006. Artists and activists played homeless by begging in masked faces major Ukrainian politicians - the president, prime minister and opposition leader. The process of asking for money from passers-by is a direct metaphor for the method of winning votes through the glut of political agitation in the media.
“Whitewashing”
2004
Documentation of performance
Two weeks before happening of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, artists made this performance in Kharkiv City Gallery. Main wall in a hall was glued on portraits of presidential candidates. In the presence of spectators artists paint faces of politicians with white paint. White wall - the result of purification "dirty reputation" - became a metaphor for a clean slate from which to begin building a new policy. The action was based on interaction with viewers, who actively participated in the "whitewash". The next day, exhibition, accompanied the performance, was asked to roll, at the direction of the call from the city administration.
G A L L E R Y – L A B O R A T O R Y ‘ S O S K A ’
The artist-run-space “gallery-laboratory “SOSka” has been opened in October, 2005 by group of young artists Mykola Ridnyi and Ganna Kriventsova as a result of self-capture of the one-storied house in Kharkov, Ukraine. “SOSka” has filled with itself vacuum of interest to the contemporary art in a province, becoming a point of its focusing in the Kharkov region. The gallery became base for development of artists, having replaced with it nonexistent institutions, carrying out communication and exposition functions. Exhibitions in “SOSka” had noncommercial priorities and aggressive character of the statement, have intentionally ignored sociopolitical subjects. Occurrence of new gallery became resonant event of all Ukrainian level that has led to a number of communicative projects with artists and groups from Ukraine and Russia. Since 2005 gallery “SOSka” executes a function of the only one non-profit space for contemporary art in Southern Ukraine. It became a platform for young artist without any state or private support.
T H E N E W H I S T O R Y
“The New History” – is an exhibition curated by SOSka group in Kharkov museum of art in 2009. It was a special project designed for a traditional fine arts museum. It presents works by Swedish, Romanian, Slovakian, Russian and Ukrainian artists. Art objects created in the first decade of the I century are introduced as a temporary part of Ukrainian and Russian art regular exposition of the traditional post=soviet museum. Geopolitical idea of curators’ concept is peculiar: Eastern European art movement vector points, contrary to the popular belief, to the East, not the West. The project voices an opinion that contemporary art culture of Eastern European countries, often existing in a conservative (provincial) environment, is in search of alternative ways of development in the local situation. Name of the exposition playing with the arts history is also addressing this communicative precedent as socialization of a phenomenon. ““East Principle” always included fears such as, for example, the Turkish wars, “bolshevism red flow”, “gypsies” or “cheap gastarbeiters” – East is till perceived as a threat. This is closely connected to perception of the East as a territory of availability: East colonization and attribution of imaginary riches to the East are actually a confluence of differences between a threat and a promise.”i Exchange of artistic experience between the neighboring states is obstructed by distinctive peculiarities of Eurointegration in each of the countries, reflected in one-sided popularization of Western processes. At the present time Eastern Europe is a real functioning social and cultural space that has its own directions of development and problems that deserve an objective perspective.
Exhibition was banned by director of the museum next day after the opening. The head of the museum pointed to obscene words contained in the art works and incompatibility with the museum's exhibition policy. For example, the location of the work of Swedish artist Alexander Vaindorf "Detour. One particular Sunday" (earlier exhibited at Manifesta 7) installed in the room with works by classic Russian painter Ilya Repin. Even worse, he performed a rude intervention during the exhibition's installation process, in which the installation of David Ter-Oganjan “Girl in underwear” (one version of which was earlier presented in special project at Art-Moscow) was ruined; the work of Sebastian Moldovan “Paris” was changed.
The project concentrated to bring a new audience to a conservative institution by stimulating interest in a permanent exhibition in a traditional museum being unchanged for many years as well as detecting new accents for contemporary art which is used feeling comfortable in an art market spaces. If to talk about the precedent, it happened. While the exhibition itself failed to provoke a dialog, its closing revealed a number of critical issues in local cultural attitudes. With the precedent now set, I wish good luck to artists and curators who care about social transformation.
