Myths and legends of Eastern Europe
Project
curator Iryna Berezhko
"Myths and legends of Eastern Europe" Part I and Part II
Gallery LWW (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
On October 26 - December 14, 2013
Participants: Arewik Avakian, 21358SMart (Marijah Bac Cam, Sander Steins) Iryna
Berezhko, Bondero, Bianca den Breejen, Jules Calis, Igor Gusev, Jacky Hijstek,
Miroslav Kulchitsky, STUDIO KINEMATIX (Lucia Macari, Dima Riba), Natalya
Marinenko, Dmitry Oreshnikov, Maciej Pestka, Svetlana Prigoditch, Vasiliy
Ryabchenko, Stepan Ryabchenko, Ruben Santander, Zoya Sokol, Alexander
Taratynov, Katja Taratynova, Liubov Tokareva, Alexander Venetsky, Elena Yatlo,
Jegor Zaika, Paula Zarina
From time immemorial the
East has been believed to be the area of wisdom whereas the West was seen as
the zone of practical implementation of synthetic ideas. Evolutionary loops,
moving from east to west and back, generate extrapolated and sometimes
grotesque cultural stereotypes.
The archetype of place and space has a certain effect on the structure of the
external manifestations of human emotions and cultural ideologies. This is
where the West perceives the eastern part of Europe as something mysterious, as
the place where the world is similar to the alternative reality. However, the
eastern peoples themselves consider their own soul as a kind of mystery. It is
misunderstood and obscure to the end. In the minds of people there used to live
a religious principle, then it was replaced by the communist ideology during
the days of the Soviet Union. This basis also disappeared with the collapse of
the gigantic empire. The past is forever gone and the present is in the process
of formation.
Philosophical views are like disassembled puzzles of a tangled labyrinth.
Ideology that unites society is blurred. Precisely during such periods there
come moments to form myths, myths that organize society. There comes a period
of comprehension of self-identity. Artists meld the chaos of space with the
fragmentation of consciousness and thus form a new mental world. A world that
reveals the essence of things, the depth of all processes that are taking place
in Eastern Europe. The exhibits are a focus of thoughts and set concrete form
to the floating space of abstract ideas. New vectors of development are taking
place. A comprehension of mentality and the process of probing the new codes of
mythologies is occurring.
The goal of this project is an attempt to familiarize the residents of the Far
West with the myths and legends of the newly formed East. It is the place where
the newborn self-identity manifests itself in the flows of human mentalities,
one that constructs new myths that become visible to the rest of the world.
The second aim is an attempt to look at the East through the eyes of Western
Europeans.
Egor Zaika, From Series
"Homewards", Photography, 54х36cm, 2004