FLAWLESS MATERIAL
For Borderland Space, the year 2021 was a transitional one—between the Covid pandemic and the full-scale Russian invasion, which, from 2022 onwards, made it impossible to hold the symposium at its usual location. This intermediate, anxious state shaped the atmosphere of the symposium. It seemed that even some of the artists’ works were imbued with a sense of foreboding: the charred “Diary” by Serhii Yakunin, “Guardian of the North” by Vitalii Kokhan, “Again” by Liza Biletska with the text “For the last time”, “A Mistake Was Made in Reading the Text” by Volodymyr Poliehin with a reference to Ecclesiastes, and “Cloud Surveillance” by Yurii Yefanov and Illia Novhorodov.
‘It seemed to me Mohrytsia was a bit strange this year, wasn’t it?’ asked one of the symposium participants, Clemens Poole, on the train from Sumy to Kyiv. He had just treated the skin of his hands, almost completely worn away by intensive work with cement over the past two weeks, with an antiseptic we hardy used over the past two weeks. His work, a concrete tent on the banks of the Psel River, a kind of monument to the social life of the symposium, completed only minutes before departing for the station, was called “extreme land art” by his colleagues.
It seems that many participants of that year’s symposium had much to reflect on. And not only because of the rich lecture programme curated by Katia Buchatska, which addressed inventive mechanisms of adaptation among different life forms, geocinema, land art, paleo art, and the paleontological turn. But also because of the specific way in which the “natural” and the “cultural”, the human and the inhuman, the artistic and the public, the modern and the archaic, the private and the communal, were intertwined and collided in Borderland Space that year.
The symposium was led by seven curators: Natalia Lisova, Natalia Matsenko, Yevheniia Moliar (DE NE DE), Anton Saienko, Stanislav Turina, Kostiantyn Zorkin, and Oleksii Konoshenko, with moderator Yehor Antsyhin and the permanent symposium facilitator Ganna Gidora.
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PROJECT PRESENTATION
In 2021, there were eight curatorial groups at the symposium/moderator Yegor Antsygin
curator Stanislav Turina
Curator Oleksii Konoshenko
Curator Natalia Lisova
Group DE NE DE/Coordinator Yevheniia Moliar
Curator Kostiantyn Zorkin
Curator Anton Saienko
Curator Natalia Matsenko
Group RESIDENTS/Curator Ganna Gidora
Curator Stanislav Turina
Curator Oleksii Konoshenko
Curator Natalia Lisova
Group DE NE DE/Coordinator Yevheniia Moliar
Curator Kostiantyn Zorkin
Curator Anton Saienko
Curator Natalia Matsenko
“Echoes” project by representatives of the winter land art festival Mythogenesis
Group RESIDENTS/Curator Ganna Gidora
VIDEO
A strikingly prognostic quality emerged (as often occurs with symposium topics) in the choice of the 2021 theme, “Flawless Material”—comprehensive and, at the same time, demanding. Being in the landscape and alone with it has always been an essential aspect of the experience and practice in Mohrytsia. The landscape of Mohrytsia is simultaneously a perfect backdrop and a perfect material.
However, the 2021 symposium proved to be intense and highly “social”—particularly in contrast to the limited interactions of the previous “Covid” year. Some participants, despite this density, managed to dissolve in the material and engage in dialogue with it. Yet many noted that, for the first time, they scarcely had the opportunity to be alone with the natural environment and to fully immerse themselves in the flawlessness of the material.
When something occurs for the first time, there is always the possibility that it may occur for the last time. There are other potential possibilities too. The material carries immense potential for what else can be created from it. Perhaps its flawlessness lies precisely in this? A flawless material is not one without imperfections, but one with which it is possible to continue to work and explore.
The following year, 2022, was intended to be an “anniversary” year for Borderland Space. For the 25th anniversary of the symposium, the team considered holding an assembly to summarise and analyse the work of previous years, exchange views on the trajectory of the project, and discuss the vision for its future strategy. Plans included exploring possible formats for the effective operation of the symposium as a horizontal structure.
LINKS
“SO WHAT’S UP WITH THE MAMMOTH? Mohritsa Afterword” — a new exhibition at The Naked Room. Features | Artslooker August 17, 2021
https://artslooker.com/to-sho-tam-iz-mamontom-mogritcya-pislyaslovo-nova-vistavka-v-the-naked-room/