A very interesting exhibit, which is part of a project with the strange title of “reAnimatsiia” (Reanimation) has opened at the Lviv Art Gallery. On display are works by 11 prominent contemporary artists, who experiment either by referring to or applying a well-known artistic subject. They assert that, by following this path, the self-sufficiency and self- worth of a work may be achieved.
However, this was not the only task set by the participants of the project organized to mark the 100th anniversary of the Lviv Art Gallery. The participating artists also wanted to show the art-going public that a museum is not a storehouse of old paintings but a space for creative work, where dialogues between old and modern art can take place, and different cultural phenomena can be visualized and discussed, turning an art gallery into a modern center of culture.
Everyone who visits the exhibit, and the artists themselves, will learn about many issues of current importance, in particular, the situation of original artwork in the age of mass reproduction (Art-utylizatsiia [Art-Utilization] by Vlodko Kaufman); prestige and commerce in the world of art (There Can Be by Viktor Kostyrko); possibilities of new interpretations of “eternal” themes (The Annunciation by Yevhen Ravsky, Love by Orest Ivasiuta). The meaning of a text as a key to “decoding” a painting and a painter is played up by Olena Turianska (Aesthetics). The indestructibility of graffiti led Olena Kapustiak to include some in her sculpture (Lvivsky Zapysnyk /Lviv Notebook). Oleksii Iutin’s photographic still lifes record recent times and they portray the expressiveness of the world of objects (Recollections of the Past Century). The omnipotence of quotations and borrowings, recognized as post-modernism, has not passed a verdict on art. On the contrary, it has evoked ironic, philosophical, and plastic quests, in which a well-known subject or fragment has turned out to be only a stimulus to a new self-valued work of art (The Death of Marat by Levin, Etruscans by Petruk, Fragments by Sahaidakovsky, and Unnamed by Sydorenko).
Professor Halyna Skliarenko, who teaches at the State Academy where she heads a department of cultural and arts personnel, attended the opening: “The concept of ‘reAnimation’ is very interesting because a dialogue of modern art with old times is a very topical question. It is very good that it is being raised here, within the museum’s walls. This enables us to consider modern art not as a separate stage but within the context of the history of art, and to convince us once more that this is a rational process of evolution. Such an understanding is especially important for Ukrainian art, where modern art is viewed as being absolutely estranged from previous experience. This project confirms this and it links the old experience with modern art.”
In addition to the current exhibit, which also includes works from the museum’s collection, a Ukrainian-English catalogue was published, and a roundtable was held on the topic of “reanimating” museums. The discussants broached such issues as developing museum pedagogy, involving the broader public in Lviv’s newest culture, and creating an artistic territory that would allow the public to meet and socialize with contemporary artists. Vita Susak, the project leader and head of the Department of 19th- and 20th-European Art at the Lviv Art Gallery, acknowledged that the title of the “reAnimation” exhibit - reviving, renewing - is based on the idea of boosting the activity of the Lviv Art Gallery as a cultural institution. There is hope that the dialogue that has begun between classical and modern art will evoke reflections on the problems currently faced by museums and the prospects of new artistic practices.
