We commenced the year 2014 with a significant event for the country’s art scene – the Non Stop Media VII festival.
The 7th edition of NonStop proved to be both provocative and, as the audience’s reaction demonstrated, quite scandalous.
The final project was set to take place at the “Nove Misto” creative campus, located within Kharkiv’s “French Boulevard” shopping and entertainment center. Given the center’s focus on providing a highly comfortable environment to cater to consumer desires, it seemed like an interesting venue for art to break free from the traditional confines of cultural institutions. However, despite the organizers’ best efforts, censorship prevailed.Following the grand opening and interactions between visitors and artists, security guards at the French Boulevard shopping mall rudely dismantled a work by Kharkiv artist Roman Mikhailov. This work was an anonymous dialogue consisting of two lines: “Who the f*ck are you shooting at? – You’re to blame yourselves,” which was projected onto an interior wall on the fourth floor of the mall. The next day, the management of “Nove Misto” proposed erasing the inscriptions on a work by Sergiy Grigoryan, publicly apologizing for the exhibited projects, and removing the entire exhibition. As a result, a decision was made to change the location and move the main project to the Municipal Gallery, where the new exhibition focused on documentation of the works.
The festival’s theme, “Guilt: Rise or General Passivity?”, explored pressing issues facing Ukrainian society and was presented in projects by finalist artists from across Ukraine, under the guidance of three contemporary art masters: Sergiy Bratkov, Stas Volyazovsky, and Ilya Isupov. In keeping with the NonStop Media tradition, there was also a theoretical, lecture component, presented by such prominent figures in contemporary art as Bayon Geldhof, Deputy Art Director of the PinchukArtCentre, researcher Yanina Prudenko, and Russian socio-critical artist Pyotr Pavlensky.
The festival also featured a parallel program that included film screenings, poetry readings, workshops, and concerts. We invite you to join us in reminiscing about the vibrant days of the 2014 festival by watching a vlog from the VALEO channel.
https://mgallery.kharkov.ua/1998-vistavka-pamjati-dizi/
