“Insubordinate”
Exhibition within the PAC UA programme
May 31, 2024 — July 14, 2024
The exhibition “Insubordinate” presents the practice of two artistic communities that were active in Odesa at the turn of 2010-2020. Practically, it is about the “NOCH” gallery and a temporary collaboration that operated in the space of the former shipyard (SRZ-2) and consisted of Dasha Chechushkova, Illia Todurkin and _*.
The “NOCH” gallery, which functioned in the studio of the artist Oleksandra Kadzevych (co-initiated by Harry Kraievets), was a place where experimental projects were conducted which could not take part in official or commercially oriented art institutions in Odesa.** At the same time, it was a place where microcommunities were formed and considered as an alternative center of gravity for the independent art scene. For this exhibition, the “NOCH” team decided to show the works of Odesa-based artist Andrii Lavrykov (Borman), which is an echo of the gallery's Odesa program.
The group of Chechushkova, Todurkin and _ was a part of a rather massive and multifaceted artistic movement in the shipyard. This community, which defined itself through the idea of “coexistence”, had the hallmarks of a sect, family or mystical union. Now, after numerous transformations and even after its formal dissolution, it still influences the worldview and style of a wider range of young Ukrainian artists.
These two groups were united by the idea of staying out of the struggle for power in the cultural field, and avoiding domination and subordination relations altogether. In other words, they were united by a desperate attempt to “just be” in their own unique way, not competing with any other. Being insubordinate often signifies marginality. At the same time, the insubordinate is freedom of maneuver, a possibility of an unexpected, paradoxical and life-saving response where the power-oriented logics of competition, populism and ideological subservience lead artistic movements to a dead end.
“Insubordinate” is an exhibition about the possibility of thinking separately and uncoordinated in moments of powerful social consensus. Essentially, it's about the loneliness of art as a form of its political nature.
*The name of the third artist will remain anonymous at his own request.
**We do not use the term “institution” in this context, as it is excessively loaded with specific requirements that were mostly seen as unrealistic at that time and place.
Curated by Nikita Kadan.
27.05.2024