Ukrainian artist Waldemart Klyuzko (he prefers to call himself this way) became famous to broad artistic circles this May, when he turned the building of the Ukrainian Institute of America, one of the architectural gems of New York, into a huge installation called HOME EAST. Waldemart and his assistants covered all the windows of the building with red and white tape, which is used to restrict the places of accidents and ruinations. In such a way, the Ukrainian Institute, especially in the evening, when the lights are on inside, turned into a warning sign, which in a distinctive manner, without unnecessary explanations, points to the situation in our country.
In fact, most of the works by Klyuzko keep balance between art, politics, and social problems in a masterful way. Whether he builds House of the same tape at GogolFest, or paves a map of Crimea near Kyiv with forks dug into sand (festival Spring Wind), or creates a symbolical sale of the capital in 100-gram bags under a tree, which is “flourishing” with shop price tags (I cannot help buying you, my Kyiv) – the message of his works always exceeds the artistic limits, touches upon a broad circle of realities, which worry the audience here and now. For the past 1.5 year a separate direction of the author’s activity is a close cooperation with the New York band Singerbusters, representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora, which continue to hold successful and biting protests against Putin’s aggression and are literally pursuing Russian touring actors, musicians, and directors who supported this aggression with their pickets. Not in the last instance these actions produce an effect due to Waldemart’s bright and provocative posters. The May performance Putin Mouse, when protesters armed with big Putin masks that looked like a vampire Micky Mouse, marched in New York along the Times Square crowded with tourists and sang a mocking song written by local poetess and musician Suzan Hwang about the Russian president, produced an incredible impression on the surrounding people.
In a word, the interview with the artist is well-timed.
“IN CHILDHOOD I DREW WITH PLASTICINE ON WALLS”
Do you recall your first work?
“I don’t remember it, but my parents told me that in childhood I drew with plasticine on walls (laughing). Later I used a variety of methods, but that was one of the first attempts. Actually, none of those drawings have been preserved, because we changed our place of living. Sometimes I find older sketches, and it is simply interesting to see what I used to do before. But I don’t feel sentimental.”
When did you understand that you were becoming a painter?
“There has not been such moment. I like the word ‘artist.’”
Whom can you call your teachers?
“Everyone whose works I have seen. I was mostly influenced by such world artists as Mark Rothko [American artist, the leading representative of abstract expressionism, one of the founders of the color field painting. – Author], Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Damien Hirst [well-known British postmodernist artist. – Author], Henri Matisse, Ukrainians Anatolii Kryvolap [modern master of Ukrainian non-figurative painting. – Author], and Oleksandra Ekster.”
Why them?
“The works I saw influenced me with the energy the authors put in them. They created a new world, in which we are living now.”
“A POSTER IS A BAYONET IN ART”
What place is given for posters in your work?
“Posters are a bayonet in art. When we run out of long-distance shells, the razors for short-distance weapons are left. This genre became more active during the Maidan events, because you have the fastest reaction here: you can make a poster with the help of a piece of a cartoon and colored duct tape or draw it on PC in a 20-minute time, print, and go to the rally. When during the Maidan events I was in the US with a group of New York protesters, we reacted very fast, and namely posters were very helpful. Lately I have been actively using this form.”
Many people create posters these days – is not the genre leveled in such a way?
“The more posters are done, the better. Maybe, the quality decreases in this general flow, but in Kharkiv the group “4 Bloc” is making a Biennale of posters – and everything is on high level there. As for my works, my poster won in a category at the Stop Censure Competition, and posters from the New York actions are part of the collection ‘The Voice of Peace.’”
“YOU CAN HAVE A 15-PEOPLE ACTION, BUT THEY WILL CREATE A STIR LIKE THERE ARE SEVERAL HUNDREDS”
Actually, your active cooperation with the abovementioned New York band Singerbusters became a reason for our communication. How did it begin?
“At some point of time we went out to the street and stayed there. I live in Kyiv, but I had an opportunity to go to the US with a theater company. When we had breaks, we could leave the rehearsals to do something else. Everything began with Maidan events. The protests were taking place in New York as well. There are several generations of Ukrainians, but there was a strange situation: people come to the Ukrainian embassy to protest against Russia. So, a new group was formed, the protests were coordinated via the Internet. Some actions were organized in a matter of several minutes, during a lunch break. Maidan won, but a new story began – Crimea, the occupation. Fewer people were taking part in rallies, but fewer people don’t mean a worse protest. You can have a 15-people action, but it will cause a stir like there are several hundreds. We used the protests as a form, for people to pay attention and understand who we were. And it worked, for example, near the Metropolitan Opera during Gergiev’s tour. Provocateurs came to create news that we are beating them. The police were defending us.”
How do you manage to keep balance between the artistic and political things in your creative work, so that they did not interfere?
“There is no balance. The only moment is that you should not touch upon religious issues. You have no right to offend the faith of people: people have feelings and they believe in thousand-year-long traditions. And politics is a temporary thing: tomorrow there will be different politicians. As for posters and street actions, we can call it a street art. But it is short-lasting. On the whole, every political action of this kind can be considered a performance.”
Like Putin Mouse?
“That was pure performance rather than a political action. Hopefully, it was not the last one.”
“THIS IS A HUGE STORY, NOT ONLY OF UKRAINE”
How did you come to the installation genre?
“I take interest in a variety of forms, and every work is an experiment. One day I tried this genre, and it became close to me. Installations are also a short-term thing. After the exhibit they are disassembled and ruined. This is also a kind of a street art. It is unreal to repeat it, you can just recreate it.”
Yes, it is hard to imagine a copy of the installation Home East you created in the Ukrainian Institute in New York.
“Many people saw Home East, including those who did not want to see. We invited the audience inside.”
What was there?
“Such home is a symbol of all homes left by the forced migrants. The meaning was in showing that this house is empty. So, there was nothing inside of it. We took out all furniture pieces we could. The audience saw only the windows covered with red and white tape. In the same way people cover windows, when there is a threat of bombing. It looked very bright, because the sun rays, when they touched the window frames, went through the tape, which produced an effect of painted glass.”
I must note an interesting parallel. At the GogolFest festival past year you built a vertical contour house with the help of the same tape. In other words, in Kyiv this tape, even if conditionally, is creating a house, whereas in New York it is destroying it.
“Yes. The house was available at GogolFest. You could stand near it, enter it, but at the same time it moved away from you, because it was in two dimensions. This is a dream taken away from you when a war begins: you were building this house, but you won’t finish it, because what you were building for all this time has been destroyed; at the same time I would like to visualize this dream and show that there is hope for return and reconstruction. In New York the content has already changed, because the conflict was escalated. That was a demonstration not for those who are in a state of war, but for those who live beyond Ukraine, to explain what is going on in reality. People who are living in the US came there out of various reasons, and a lot of them – because of wars in their countries. They are part of the East too.”
What do you mean?
“America is always the West. Everything across the water, the ocean, is the East, no matter where it is located, in Europe or Asia. Therefore this is a huge history not only of Ukraine, but all the conflicts that have taken place lately. For example, we can recall the crashes of the Polish or Malaysian planes, when the place of the accident was restricted by red and white tape. The tape is a symbol of hazard, fear, sorrow, tears, and pain, not only in Ukraine.”
“EVERY WORK IS ART, IF YOU HAVE A CORRESPONDING ATTITUDE TO IT”
What is home for you?
“It is where my family is. Where I feel safe. My home is Kyiv.”
I asked about home, because in our culture there is still a problem of importance of national identification of an artist. Is an artist a citizen of the world?
“Of course. If he makes art that speaks not only with a certain category of people, but the world on the whole, if he points to things that can be understood without political specification, he is a citizen of the world. An important attribute of art is its ability to be exported, i.e., if it is understandable only for people around whom it was done, this is an art of that circle, but if it can be shown abroad, it is universal. Where do the Klitschko brothers belong?”
Probably the world sport.
“Same here. If an artist is understandable to us, this is the world level.”
I have recalled Joseph Beuys’s dictum “Everyone is an artist.”
“Yes, but someone can brilliantly drive a nail into a wall – this is art, and someone can bake such a delicious cake that it will be art too. Every work is art, if you have a corresponding attitude to it.”
Hence a tricky question: are commerce and art friends? Enemies? Partners in need?
“Everything at once. Art can be created only for sale or for the sake of art – everything is near. If it doesn’t sell now, it will sell at some point in the future. But it is very hard to make an interesting project without money, because every art is commercial to some or other extent.”
“IF YOU ARE ABLE NOT TO DO ART, YOU SHOULD NOT DO THIS”
I have a simple question at the end of our conversation: why are you doing this?
“If you are able not to do art, you shouldn’t do this. I cannot help doing this.”
Do you have any hobbies?
“Probably, art is a hobby. This is a thing for which you can find time.”
