"Stone Hits Stone"
A solo exhibition by Nikita Kadan

The PinchukArtCentre (Kyiv, Ukraine) presents "Stone Hits Stone" by Nikita Kadan, made in the context of the PinchukArtCentre's Research Platform. His first major solo exhibition in Ukraine presents both new produced and existing works reflecting on Ukrainian history, political violence, national historical heritage, avant-garde and Soviet utopia. This exhibition deals with present day challenges in its inextricable connection with the past, using history to enlighten the present and imagine the future.

The exhibition opens with a "flashback" expressed as an intuitive artistic and historical reflection mainly through the works of those who are seen as the Ukrainian avant-garde. It accentuates Kadan's use of the historical past, in the form of ideologies, art and acts of political violence.

Permeating the entire exhibition are historical events, objects and designs that Kadan re-interprets with regard to present-day pressing need to resist geopolitical failures, imperialist aggression and far-right ideologies.

Stone Hits Stone is never about "history as it really was", it is a motive that flashes up in the moment of danger, and it enlightens our present and directs us towards the future.

On the occasion of Nikita Kadan's solo exhibition, the PinchukArtCentre will publish in early March 2021 an online book, "Stone Hits Stone". The collected texts by Uilleam Blacker, Bjorn Geldhof, Kateryna Mischenko and Kateryna Yakovlenko will elaborate on history and memory, art interpretation of the past and violence as well as actualisation of the avant-garde legacy today. The design is by Aliona Solomadina. The book will be available on the PinchukArtCentre web page in English and Ukrainian.