Artwork by: Veronika Cherednychenko
Binary Bonds: New Media Expressions From Ukraine
Artists: Veronika Cherednychenko, Alevtina Kakhidze, Hanna Trofymova, Svitlana Zhytnia & Joëlle Kehrli, Yana Gryniv
Curated by Yana Gryniv
NODE Media Lab, in collaboration with Art Contact Ukraine, presents a special showcase featuring the works of Ukrainian women artists whose practices exist at the intersection of art and technology. This initiative highlights the resilience and creativity of Ukrainian artists in the face of ongoing challenges, offering a platform for their powerful expressions to reach Viennese art audiences.
Curated by Yana Gryniv, the exhibition will feature works by Veronika Cherednychenko, Alevtina Kakhidze, Hanna Trofymova, Svitlana Zhytnia, Joëlle Kehrli, and Yana Gryniv. These artists bring unique perspectives, reflecting their experiences and hopes for peace amidst a humanitarian crisis that has profoundly impacted Ukraine and the world. This collaboration underscores the transformative role of art and technology in fostering solidarity, amplifying voices, and creating support networks across borders.
Through the dynamic fusion of art and technology, artists take us on an imaginative journey into a realm of their thoughts and memories. The boundaries between reality, thoughts, emotions, and artwork become increasingly fluid, creating a powerful experience for the viewer. This way, the exhibition establishes binary bonds between art and technology, between an artist and an artwork, an artwork and a visitor. Binary bonds are revealed through a dialogue between the new reality the artists had to face with the war, and a craving of an individual to comprehend the inner world and the world surrounding them. This exhibition involves engagement, as art transforms into a pivotal experience that reshapes perceptions, enabling both the artists and the audience to undergo significant personal transformations. Created by Ukrainian female artists, this exhibition is a bold response to the dramatic shifts in their reality, striving to foster a deeper understanding of the world during these tumultuous times.
Exhibition Dates
16 - 22 December 2024
ORF-FUNKHAUS 2ND FLOOR
Argentinierstraße 30A, 1040 Vienna
Sponsored by: Bundesministerium für Kunst, Kultur, öffentlichen Dienst und Sport
Media support: the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna, Office.Ukraine
With the kind support of Never At Home
For more information about the exhibition follow Node Media Lab website.
Photography by Erol Serbest
Alexander, entrepreneur:
"Here I see that the consequences of aggression, though terrible, but people have ralled and have strong resistance points. Their bodies leaving to jump into a happy future"
Yana Gryniv
"Traces of Aggression"
Nadiia, pharmacist:
"A wonderful exhibition Binary Bonds: New Media Expressions From Ukraine, I recommend everyone to visit. Several works were particularly impressive, for example: "Tarle", a multimedia project, 2023 - a surreal memory of a house in Kherson, which was under Russian occupation. The project "Tectumque 2.0" is dedicated to fears. Virtual amorphous figures that turn into tanks and troops. This work has a direct connection with the real world today. And another cool work by Yana Gryniv, "Traces of Aggression", which shows and makes us think about how deep wounds Russian aggression leaves in our souls today and how it affects our "tomorrow"."
Dmytro, diplomat:
"About "Tarle": Such "Soviet labyrinths" are familiar to all regional centers in Ukraine. These labyrinths have not only become a home for many, but are also now a reminder of the need to find "Ariadne's thread" in order to free oneself from the Soviet "identity" - grayness, doom, helplessness - that Moscow has been trying to impose on Ukrainians for centuries.
About "To the living" Russian rockets bloom with poppies, which not only sends us back to the tragedy of the First World War, but is also a bitter reminder that the slogan "Never again" remains nothing more than words, and this is the author's powerful message to world leaders that words must be transformed into concrete actions."
Veronika Cherednychenko
"Tectumque 2.0"
Svitlana Zhytnia
"To The Living"
Veronika Cherednychenko
"Tarle"
OUR GUESTS´
FEEDBACK
Alevtina Kakhidze
“Invasions 1, 2, 3”
Exhibited with a VR-headset
Film by 360 camera
Duration: 22 min.
Ukrainian
Subtutles: DE
Commissioned by Manifesta 14, which took place in Kosovo, 2022
Idea: Alevtina Kakhidze
Script and direction: Alevtina Kakhidze, Piotr Armianovski
Camera and editing: Piotr Armianovski
Sound editing: Serhii Kulbachnyi
Music: Maksim Shalygin
Performers:Alexander Krolikowski, artist Alevtina Kakhidze, artist Olexii Kovalenko, botanist, National Museum of Natural history of NAS of Ukraine, author of "Alien plants: How hogweed and ragweed conquer the Earth" Anatol Stepanenko, artist, film director and poet Tamara Hryhorivna, resident of the village of Muzychi, Kyiv region
INVASIONS 1.2.3. is a film made after the liberation of Kyiv region from the Russian occupiers in 2022. Ukrainian artist Alevtina Kakhidze meets with friends in Irpin, Muzychi, Mostyshche. Thanks to the 360° format, the reality of the Russia–Ukraine War is manifested in every inch: on the left are a destroyed bridge and houses, on the right, children are playing, a happy dog Chuck and a freshly planted seedbed. In the film, Alevtina’s clothes change from mourning to festive, and at the end, she is in the kitchen wearing her home clothes, preparing dinner from the “plants-occupiers”. Her walk with a Kyiv scientist-botanist sheds light on another war in Ukraine — between plants.
Veronika Cherednychenko
“Tarle”, multimedia project, 2022
Exhibited on a screen
A surreal reminiscence of home. The title is a reference to the name of the street in Kherson, the place where I spent my childhood. This is a city in the south of Ukraine that has been under Russian occupation for six months now. Soviet panel buildings are laid out in a specific pattern, easily recognized from a bird’s-eye view, but deceitfully labyrinth-like if you are inside them. Contours and boundaries lose their clarity once you get closer and try to remember the details. I am afraid that I am forgetting my home, which I left ten years ago, and which I started missing only now when it’s impossible to go back.“
Tectumque 2.0”, multimedia project, 2024
Exhibited with a VR-headset
Tectumque 2.0is a continuation of the 2021 project dedicated to unconscious childhood fears. However, this time, the fears are entirely real, and amorphous black figures transform into tanks and weapons. Similar to 2021, the project consists of drawings, graphics, and virtual reality experiences where the audience can get acquainted with and examine characters from imaginary yet simultaneously real world, all within the safety of a VR headset.
Hanna Trofimova
“Can you see me?”
Exhibited on a screen
Video art 2022
Once I thought, do I exist without pain? And what part does pain take in me? Is the world ready to accept me with this pain. I cried in the kitchen, my friends listened to me and were surprised. They did not know how difficult it was for me then. Because every time I was in pain, I disappeared from the social world and hid in loneliness. But if you always hide your pain, will you be real to others?
Svitlana Zhytnia & Joëlle Kehrli
“To the Living”
Exhibited with a beamer
Generative video art, sound
This composition was created in May 2022 as an emotional response to the tragedy of war victims due to the full-scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine. Soundscape by Joëlle Kehrli. Played live on Mapping Festival 2022 in Geneva.
As a result of the large-scale invasion in Ukraine, death became so tangible, existential, and evident to feel. This piece is an artist's contemplation of the cycle of life and death that affects all living beings. The urban environment is the place where thousands of people are born, form the next generation, and pass away. In abstract forms, the artwork depicts the beginning of life, walking through the urbanscape, the changes, and the ultimate collapse. The soundscape accompanies the visuals and emphasizes the emotional changes of the composition. From meditation to anxiety and consternation, to humility and prayer. The artist invites the audience to meditate and feel for the people whose lives were taken by destructive power.
Joëlle Kehrli- sitarist and vocalist also dabbles in electronics, field recording and mixing, with an intuitive and experimental approach. She made an emotional soundscape for the artwork.
Yana Gryniv
“Traces of Aggression”, manipulated digital photography series, 2022
Fujicolor Crystal Archive Paper, edition 1 of 1, metal frame
Homes are destroyed. People are killed. Each and every one is injured. Russian aggression injures us deeply, leaving a vivid deep trace in our souls. I have learned to live with it. Those traces go deeper and deeper, forming a road map of new reality. Our reality influences our tomorrow. Our tomorrow is today. Each action leaves a trace.The basis for this series has become my nude and abstract light photography. They were two separate worlds: one is more real; one is more abstract. However, at some point this boundary was annihilated and they merged together.
Models: Kate Nych, Nikolay Shpilevoy
Awards: Tokyo International Photo Awards, 2023, Bronze
