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The “Mariupol at the Verge” Exhibition

On the 6th of September, 2016 the exhibition of Olena Ukraintseva and Hanna Torkaienko, the atrists from eastern Ukraine, “Mariupol at the Verge” was opened in Kirovohrad Regional Art Museum. The exhibition is presented as a part of the art project “We have a single fate: its name is Ukraine”.

It is not for the first time that an exhibition on national and patriotic themes has opened in the museum. This project is particularly important because it is conducted under foreign military intervention and a regional war, which at any moment can turn into full-scale war. Military confrontation in the East of our country has been continuing for more than two years, and gained features of long trench warfare. That is why it wasn’t a coincident that the presentation of works created in Mariupol, situated near the front, became the main component of the exhibition.

Olena Pavlivna Ukraintseva was born on 19th of January, 1980 in the city Mariupol, Donetsk region. In 1995 she graduated from the Children's Art School named after A.I. Kuindzhi. In 2001 she received a degree of a lecturer/economist in Pryazovskyi State Technical University, and a diploma in easel painting in Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts in 2016.

Hanna Valeriivna Torkaienko was born on 23rd of September, 1971 in Donetsk. In 1990 she graduated from Donetsk State School of Fine Arts and received a designer's degree. She worked at school as a teacher. In 2004 she graduated from Donetsk Institute for Social Education and received a degree “teacher of fine arts”. She worked in a drawing studio at the preschool institution.

In 2014 with the opening of hostilities, Anna was forced to leave the city of Donetsk and to move with his family to the city of Mariupol where she lives now.   The situation in the country and life in Mariupol prompted the artists to creativity. Hanna Torkaienko together with Olena Ukraintseva founded the creative society “Krot U” and joined the art event of the artist and poet Petro Hrytsiuk “We have a single fate: its name is Ukraine” with his exhibition progect “Mariupol at the Verge”. This is the artists’ first big art project. Apart from Ukraine they plan to present the exhibition “Mariupol at the Verge” in Lithuania, which is being actively negotiated now. Also the artists made plans about new projects “Cultural Landscape" and "Draw for me Tomorrow”.  

The exhibition includes 23 paintings and drawings, photographs and models of tetrapods (concrete structures intended to restrict the movement of heavy military equipment). According to the artists the project name was not chosen accidentally, for Mariupol is on the verge of war and peace. And the citizens of the city, every day is unpredictable. The authors of the project conveyed in their works the events in the Donetsk region, that took place in recent years. Trips to roadblocks for plein-airs were especially risky. But the authors of the exhibition lit up with this idea, that is why the difficulties didn’t scared them.

Among the works “Mariupol. Port“ (2015), "Diedulia” (2015),"Portrait of a Soldier” (2015),"Shyrokino” (2015), “Marines Sasha and Igor” (2015) of Olena Ukraintseva "Portrait of a Girl-Migrant"(2016) "For Courage" (2016), "Special Forces Soldier" (2016) and “Experienced" (2016) of Anna Torkaienko are worth noting, the works organically complemented each other and created a single, coherent exposition.

The presented project is an artistic rethinking of reality based on personal contact with residents of the city and the military who are on the front line. It is an attempt to convey their emotions, expectations, hopes, and character. It is the story about the city which has recently been on verge, on verge of the world and war.

The exhibition has already been in many Ukrainian cities: Uzhhorod, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Ternopil, Sambor, Yaremche, Berezhany, Zaporizhzhya and others. After the presentation in our museum, it will travel across other cities for Ukrainians to remember their history and to be proud of their heroes.     

During the opening of the exhibition, Viktoriia Talashkevych, the initiator of the presentation in our city, a well-known journalist and social activist made a speech, warm and friendly greetings were made by the volunteer of NGO "Mother's Heart" Olena Shpilivenko, words of support and moving words of gratitude were expressed by the director of the NGO "Kirovograd Regional Charitable Foundation for social security of members and Veterans of ATO” Irina Konovalova. The exhibition was presented by its authors Olena Ukraintseva and Hanna Torkaienko.

At the opening ceremony the work by Hanna Torkaienko "Portrait of a Girl-Migrant", 2016 (paper, pastel) and the work by Olena Ukraintseva “Commonplace", 2016 (oil on canvas) were transferred to the museum's collection.  

 

Mykola Pravda, research assistant

of Kirovohrad Regional Art Museum