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The Best of Times, The Worst of Times - the First Kyiv International Biennial of Contemporary Art to be held in the newly converted Mystetskyi Arsenal in the historic centre of Kyiv, capital of the Ukraine, takes as its subject the cyclical nature of contemporary art and how this is related both to our lives today and to our continually changing perspectives on past and future.
Biennale will be curated by David Elliott (UK), who is one of the most influential world curators. In particular, David Elliott curated the 17th International Biennale of Sydney (THE BEAUTY OF DISTANCE: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age, 2008-2010); he established and headed Mori Art Museum in Tokyo; he was the director and curator of Moderna Museeet in Stockholm and Istanbul Modern museum.
The exhibition is organised around four hub ideas, none of which are mutually exclusive. The first, The Restless Spirit, looks at the ways in which we derive strength from beliefs, myths and conceptions of the universe that are not governed by material need; In the Name of Order examines how under the pretext of rationalism power attempts to dominate culture through the creation of self-serving hierarchies; Flesh takes the human body, its appetites, desires and limitations as its central theme. The Unquiet Dream, the final section of the exhibition, focuses on nightmares and premonitions of disaster, without which we are unable to change.
The main project will be organised around four hub ideas and will occupy the first and second floors of Mystetskyi Arsenal with the total exhibition area of ??20,000 square meters.
There are about 200 biennials in a world, but only few of them are focused on the museum space, like Tate Biennial (Tate Gallery, UK) and Whitney Biennial (the Whitney Museum of American Art , USA). Ukraine will be the next country with a similar format biennale. ARSENALE will also present a great special and parallel program in a variety of cultural institutions, galleries and public space of Kyiv.
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