Shcherbenko Art Centre (Kyiv, Ukraine) presents the exhibition In Progress: MUHi-2021 prize winners in the space of the Cultural and Information Center at the Embassy of Ukraine in France.

The MUHi Award is one of the most prestigious in Ukraine today, created in 2009 by gallerist and curator Maryna Shcherbenko. The purpose of the award is to work on qualitative changes in the Ukrainian art field, as well as help young artists in building their careers, including at the international level. Therefore, every two years, the MUHI Award team presents a full-fledged section of young Ukrainian art, and the laureates are chosen by an international jury.

Project In Progress: The winners of the MUHI-2021 award will introduce to the French audience the works of three MUHI-2021 award winners: Pavla Nikitina, Olha Kuzyura, and Maria Stoianova. All of them are strong female voices, all three are in the phase of active career development, and all are internationally integrated artists with powerful visual language and active practice. Pavla, Olha, and Maria belong to a new generation of Ukrainian artists, whose representatives are distinguished by an active civic position and focus on socio-political issues. They do not just reflect on the events in their country, they are witnesses and active participants in these events. Artists work in different media, but they are united by research optics. All three in their practices touch the most sensitive area — emotional states caused by trauma.

Pavla Nikitina works with new technologies, exploring psychological and social phenomena through sculpture, and she was also the winner of the MUHi-2021 Grand Prix. Pavla has a brilliant command of classical and modern techniques of working with sculpture — from academic to 3D modeling. The laureate of the first special prize of the MUHi-2021, Olha Kuzyura works on the intersection of graphics, installation, and text, exploring the phenomenon of collective and individual memory, including through gaps in her personal history. Maria Stoianova, laureate of the second special prize of the MUHi-2021 – documentary director; also she has an education in cultural studies and social anthropology, Maria focuses on social issues. Among other things, she examines the process of formation of the newest Ukrainian identity, focusing on the resistance to shocks and the capacity for civil resistance of the powerful Ukrainians.

The large-scale war launched by Russia against Ukraine on February 24 of this year is the main topic on which Ukrainian artists are focused. The exhibition In Progress is an attempt at a collective reflection on this war and the variety of personal and social transformations caused by it. The works of the exhibition are a part of the projects previously developed by involved artists, but after eight months of the great war in Ukraine, they have acquired a new sound (sense). The project is not only among the most interesting examples of young Ukrainian art but also an opportunity for the international audience to deepen their knowledge and understanding of Ukraine as a point on the map where the future of the whole of Europe is currently being determined.

Pavla Nikitina’s series of three works «Fear» explores perhaps the most vulnerable and at the same time multifaceted emotional state. Pavla works on the topic of changes in the psycho-emotional state of a person caused by experiencing fear. In recent months, Ukrainians have felt all the possibilities of seeing it: the terror of the unknown, the fear of the future, the fear of loss or death. Despite the indomitability shown, these experiences did not pass without a trace, and Nikitina’s works clearly demonstrate the consequences. «Fear» is a micromodel of a society undergoing a long-term upheaval. We are still in progress, but we know for sure that we will come out of this battle not only as winners but also as someone completely different from what we were before.

«Relative Security» by Olha Kuzyura works with the transformation of the concept of security during the war, which brought a sharp awareness of the fragility of our bodies and habitual ways of life. The idea of «security» is transformed and sometimes becomes conditional. Olga explores how the human body learns to adapt to new living conditions, while our psyche uses protective mechanisms that keep us from being aware of everything that is happening around us. The works from this series are a visual document that captures the moment of individual and societal security paradigm shifts during the war.

Maria Stoianova’s project «Forest, Forest» consists of fragments of the video archive of the Center of Urban History of Central-Eastern Europe (Lviv, Ukraine). These are family videos of a Ukrainian family in the middle of 2000s. One of the most important events for Ukraine of that period was the Orange Revolution, which was not only the first case of civil resistance to an attempt to falsify the presidential elections in the new Ukrainian history, but also laid the foundations for the formation of a society that does not oppose Russian armed aggression. Maria Stoianova’s work enables the international audience to better understand the phenomenon of the «indomitable Ukrainian nation”. In Progress is art being created right now and seeks to talk to the world about the transformation that Ukraine is undergoing, as well as the true meaning of this war for Europe.

The works of three female artists, like the panes of a children’s kaleidoscope, are composed of metaphrases and form a background for talking about difficult, but important experiences. This picture is unique not only because it exists here and now, changing every moment, but also because of its openness. Its authors are direct carriers of the experiences of the war, which has already changed the world as we know it now, no doubt.

The exhibition In Progress: MUHI-2021 Prize Winners will run from November 8th till 25th, 2022. It is carried out as part of the second season of the «Ukrainian Spring» project initiated by the Ukrainian Institute.