IS IT THE SAME?
Artists
Larion Lozovyi, Maria Matiashova, Andrii Rachynskyi and Daniil Revkovskyi
The exhibition was curated by Asia Tsisar in collaboration with
Das Gesellschaftliche Ding collective (Amel Bešlagić, Ahmad Darkhabani, Anastasia Andriivna Kutsova, Anna Schoissengeyer, Milica Tomić)
Venue: Annenstraße 53
Graz, Austria
2023
"Is it the same?" was the title of an exhibition we presented at the CZKD in Belgrade in February this year. The question was posed to the audience and revolved around the possibility of dialogue between Serbs and Ukrainians that wouldn't be mediated through the lens of the wars ingrained in our experiences. Upon receiving an invitation to showcase the same exhibition in Graz, we opted to push this question to its limits, probing the very feasibility of translating experiences across different contexts.
"Is it the same?" displayed in the windows of Annenstrasse 53, asks whether conveying the experience of war through art is possible and what kind of ethics it demands from the viewer. Apart from the program events, throughout the exhibition's duration, the doors of Annenstrasse 53, will remain closed, allowing the exhibition view only for passers-by on the street. The image of war locked behind the transparent window, serving as a symbol of the screen hindering dialogue, establishes a safe zone for observing, witnessing, or contemplating war(s) as part of the everyday landscape of European cities.
Who do we become by confronting these images?
What exactly would we like to see when we look at war?
Is it the same?
Artists
Andrii Rachynskyi and Daniil Revkovskyi are a creative duo from Kharkiv, Ukraine who link different formats of
artistic practices such as installations, re-enactments and video, and explore the contexts and landscapes of
the industrial regions of Ukraine. They both graduated from the State Academy of Design and Arts in Kharkiv, where
they majored in graphic design. In 2012 they created a public page “Pamjat” (memory) in the Vkontakte social network
with the aim of researching the collective memory of post-Soviet territory. This project was the starting point of
their collaboration. They received the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2020 public choice award for the Hooligans project.
In 2022 they won the Allegro Award, the largest international modern art competition organized in Poland. Participants
of Ukrainian and European exhibitions.
Maria Matiashova is a Ukrainian interdisciplinary artist. Having received a law degree, she gave up a career as a lawyer and started her artistic practices. Maria works with various media, including video, photography, text, performance, installation, and public intervention. In her projects, she explores personal memory, identity issues, human relationships, language, and the effects of digital technology on social behavior. She is currently working on the subject of russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Maria has participated in the group exhibitions and festivals in Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Latvia and Estonia. Currently lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Larion Lozovyi is an artist and independent researcher. He graduated from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kyiv, receiving degrees in Philosophy and Political Science. He has completed the Course of Contemporary Art at the Kyiv School of Visual Communication, Moscow Curatorial School by V-A-C Foundation and WHW Akademija (Zagreb, Croatia). He has authored critical texts for Korydor, Prostory and Krytyka Polityczna online magazines. Additionally, he engages in publishing works in contemporary European philosophy and public policy analysis. His areas of specific research interest include ideologies of modernization and economic history of post-Socialist states.
