The School of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial 2015, announces venues, schools, and first international participants. The biennial will be taking place in Kyiv and a number of European cities from September 8 until November 1, 2015.

The School of Kyiv is curated by Hedwig Saxenhuber and Georg Shöllhammer (Vienna), and conceived together with Visual Culture Research Center (Kyiv).

The international biennale project unites the efforts of artists, intellectuals, social initiatives and institutions in Ukraine, Europe and beyond. The biennale aims at creating a public space of reflection, breaking down barriers, and building bridges in the time of warfare.

“The School of Kyiv” incorporates exhibitions and performances, film, multimedia experiments and broadcasts, and integrates permanent and open situations for learning and research. Beyond this, in cooperating with local and international institutions the biennale will create new structures and catalyse knowledge transfer outside of Kyiv. One of its main goals is to keep channels of artistic and intellectual exchange open.

The work, presentation and communication on “The School of Kyiv” revolve around a number of thematic exhibition essays and research projects: historic and contemporary works by individual artists, or historical situations that will map a system of forms, ideas and references. The main focus of the project is on the still-underexposed global cultural influence of Ukrainian avant-gardes of the last century, and on highlighting their transcultural and international character. Along with that, the biennale will showcase artworks that do not at all reflect on the current day, but rather offer moments of poetic reverie and contemplation.

Under present political conditions in Ukraine, after the revolution of Maidan and when the country is at war, the political potential of art is needed today more than ever before. The fundamental role of art as a reflexive instrument is to challenge the present political context defined by the armed conflict in Ukraine.

The biennale is an open project aimed at creating a public framework, a space where society will be able to reflect on its threatened conditions by means of art and knowledge.

The School of Kyiv will include projects by Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan (Romania), Anna Dau?íková (Slovakia), Anna Jermolaewa (Russia – Austria), Antonio Cosentino (Turkey), Asl? Çavu?o?lu (Turkey), Aura Rosenberg (USA), Boris Ondrei?ka (Slovakia), Denisa Lehocká (Slovakia), Heinz Frank (Austria), Imogen Stidworthy (UK), Ion Grigorescu (Romania), Ji?í Kovanda (Czech), Josef Dabernig (Austria), Laure Prouvost (France), Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc (France), Mikhail Tolmachev (Russia), Mladen Stilinovi? (Croatia), Neïl Beloufa (France), Pawe? Althamer (Poland), Ricardo Basbaum (Brazil), Robert Carlton Breer (USA), Till Gathmann (Germany), Wendelien van Oldenborgh (Netherlands), William Kentridge (South Africa), Yves Netzhammer (Switzerland), Zofia Kulik (Poland), …

Find more information about the event here

Ukrainian participants of the School of Kyiv and a complete list of international contributors, as well as the biennial departments in Ukraine and abroad will be announced at a press conference in August.

The main international supporters of the School of Kyiv include:
Allianz Cultural Foundation (Germany), the Austrian Federal Chancellery (Austria), European Cultural Foundation (Netherlands), the Federal Foreign Office (Germany), the German Federal Cultural Foundation (Germany), ERSTE Foundation (Austria), the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) (Austria), Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (Germany), the Ministry of Culture and Monuments Protection (Georgia), mumok (Austria), Museum of Modern Art (Warsaw), National Gallery in Prague (Czech Republic), Nordic Culture Point (Finland), the Office for Contemporary Art (OCA, Norway), Perpetuum Mobile (Finland/ Germany), Pro Helvetia (Switzerland), SHIFT – Basis.Kultur.Wien (Austria), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (Switzerland), tranzit.org (Austria/ Czech Republic/ Hungary/ Romania/ Slovakia), Van Abbemuseum (Netherlands).

http://theschoolofkyiv.org