Vernissage ::: stolen life ::: ein Fotoprojekt aus der Ukraine mit einer thematischen Ergänzung zeitgenössischer Kunst

In the organizer's words:

stolen life

in the xpon-art gallery

A photo project from the Ukraine

with a thematic addition of contemporary art

Opening on Thursday, March 20, 2025 at 7 pm

Artists and curators will be present

Open afterwards until April 4, 2025

It's not an easy exhibition. But one that is worth engaging with.

We supplemented the photo series previously shown in London and Toronto, which we are showing upstairs in the entrance area, with an open call. In the spacious cellar vaults of the gallery, there is a sensitively curated exploration of the theme in contemporary photography, objects, prints, painting, installation, linocuts, video and collage that is as touching as possible, even unpleasant, but leaves room for thought.

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In the work "Stolen Life" by DARINA DOROGAN and OLEKSANDR ZINEVYCH, which gives the exhibition its title, the people stand in front of their destroyed houses, naked, like newborns, and look into the unknown. They are people of different ages, social status or gender, but all the same in the face of disaster.

"For us, this project is an opportunity to detach the word "war" from the usual terminology and use terms such as "love", "loss", "family" and "home" to show how difficult it is to live under the conditions of war. Wars should not take place in the 21st century.

The house is an image of everything that Ukrainians are losing, of home, and of the ordinary and basic things that no one seems to be able to take away... until those come who believe they can and do. For us, art is a language that connects people all over the world, regardless of gender, age and skin color. And this project is an opportunity to have a dialog about the foundations of a democratic society."

The project, which is traveling around the world, goes beyond Ukraine. The world is suffering from an increasing number of wars across the planet. Its purpose is not only to look at war from a different perspective, to stimulate thought and dialog, but also to draw attention to the body and art as powerful instruments for the expression of ideas and senses.

::: The thematic additions in the basement, in alphabetical order of the artists :::

ANDREA NIMAX 's work refers to the time of life that is robbed from many young people in particular. This stolen lifetime shapes the life afterwards, and also the life of the next generation. The photo shows two people on the move, only a closer look is irritating, the title, "1946", conjures up images in the mind. The photo shows Andrea Nimax's parents.

White object frames with decades of wear and tear each house a folded piece of transparent sketch paper, each different in size and fold as well as the numbers in the title. It is pasted like the official national flags of the countries actively involved in wars. These flag blanks are folded in the same way as they are folded at official mourning ceremonies before being handed over to the relatives. The numbers in the titles of the open series " [ ohneWORTE ] " by ARNE LÖSEKANN stand for the number of fallen soldiers of the respective nation, e.g. "ein_land 402/645" (deceased due to enemy action/total losses).

The form of the pictogram subjectivizes the powerlessness and rigidity in the face of the everyday. DETLEF LEMME visualizes the fear of what comes from above. "Schauer w + k" brings to mind the shower scene in "Psycho", the sprinkling of daily war news, cyan gas from the shower head.

Many people jump at the image of FRAUKE WELDIN, but as soon as they know the title, they take a step back: "Neuengamme". Discomfort spreads. The name and place are inevitably associated with the concentration camp, the victims and the atrocities. Anywhere and at any time, a place can become a scene. Even then, the simultaneity of everyday beauty was present. What do we perceive, how do we remember?

In recent years, GREGORY ELTRINGHAM'spainting has focused on the ugly underbelly that has come into full view in his home country in the Trump era: toxic masculinity, denial of facts, the grotesque, the absurd, and false morality. As mainstream practice positions itself in addressing the legacy and relevance of painting's awareness of the present and its circumstances in relation to historical precedents, Eltringham continues to challenge the view that contemporary painting is incapable of expressing the moment. He says: "I understand the argument, but I don't buy it."

An ammunition box on wheels is staged as a handle to a handcart by means of a drawbar with a hand made of wash leather. The size of "Hand in Hand" by JACQUELINE CHRISTIANSEN is reminiscent of a child's toy. At second glance, however, the appearance of the olive green ammunition box disturbs the cute impression.

The oil painting by JENS JÜRGENS shows the poet Maksym Kryvtsov as a representative of a whole generation of young people whose lives were taken by war. As a soldier, he fought for the defense of the Ukraine. During breaks in combat, he read his poems from his dugout via Instagram. He died there in January last year.

JOHANNES GROHT sees the photograph "What you don't see" as a metaphor for the transmission of repressed traumas from parents to their children. Unconscious fears are unintentionally passed on from one generation to the next. For them, a normal life exists only as a simulation.

KATERYNA KOZLOVA painted the motif in the painting "The Earth" for the first time three years ago after watching the almost hundred-year-old film of the same name by Oleksandr Dovzhenko. It was a motif that she grasped, felt, was familiar to her and understood, and has appeared in her work ever since. Three cows symbolize the cycle of life and constant renewal, stand for three generations and the confrontation with past, present and future. They stand for the earth. Seen on the canvas as an inseparable unit, the mystical connection between the Ukrainian people and the land, which Dovchenko described, led to an immediate ban by the Soviet regime after the first performance. The power of art as an element that creates meaning, which prompted Stalin to order the execution of 1111 artists of the Ukrainian "Red Renaissance", still directly affects Kateryna Kozlova today; it continues to have an effect in the young artist's works, as a place of gathering where energies arise in the simple, earthly. Culture is what remains.

"History has something circular about it and even today we all lose. Especially in dignity. The only thing I understand about war," writes KLAAS WURTMANN, "is that afterwards it always comes down to those who rebuild everything. War takes almost everything from everyone. So it seems almost fantastic that some people retain some hope. My great-grandfather was one such person. My works, which are based on photographs from one of his photo albums, are reminiscent of him and his team. Until his death, he recovered, defused and/or detonated unexploded bombs.

MARGIT TABEL-GERSTER gives dolls a third life after many years of primary and short-term secondary use in an art project by Will Coles. What fates might these toys and their owners have had? With our knowledge of events in the world and our imagination, the silent witnesses offer many possibilities for interpretation and remind us of the importance of storytelling, of carrying the past into the present for a future.

Set in lead letters, OLIVER KELM shows the sentence "Who allowed you to live so beautifully", which a resident of Butscha found on a wall of her looted apartment, above a linocut of the destroyed Mariupol.

During her stay in Hamburg in 2019, visual artist ULI GOLUB from Ukraine made the film "Look, She's got Beard". In 2020, the film won the Special Prize of the PinchukArtCentre in Kyiv: "The jury was of the opinion that the work is particularly characterized by the fact that it addresses sensitive issues such as the 'other' and the acceptance of the same in a borderline provocative way and represents a particularly strong metaphor for discussing some of the most important issues of our time: Migration, integration, exclusion and difference." Uli now lives in exile and is barely able to pursue her passion as an artist due to the war.

"And so," writes PAOLO MORETTO, whose work hangs on the upper floor, "and so we are. In good times and bad. You survive this routine... And in the breath of a sigh, you realize that we are already beyond." But even in Moretto's poetic words, life begins again, as in his unerringly observant and playfully humorous works, because for Moretto art is not an idea, for him art is a thought...: "while everything is still, I sit and listen, in the murmur of an uncertain breeze, a melody of peace...".

The exhibition is complemented by films by Ukrainian teenagers from the project "THE STREET I NEED", realized by Kateryna Bosiachenko, and photographic works from I WILL LIVE IT FOR YOU, an exhibition curated by Iryna Kudriavtseva and Anja Ellenberger at the University of Art and Design Linz. The works by Ukrainian photographers cover the period from 2014 to 2022 and portray the phase of young people's lives between everyday life and fear; subconscious expectations, lost plans, dreams, opportunities, routines and escalation. The images are a reminder of the lives that cannot be given back and the value of those who live on. And that of art. It is expensive. And valuable.

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And with that we leave you with this accompanying text. If you have any questions, please contact us; if you are thirsty, too. We don't offer anything that we wouldn't drink ourselves. Drinks are available for a donation. Free admission, because everyone should have access to culture. However, you are welcome to make a donation if you would otherwise honor it. We conceive these exhibitions and run this space because we think it is important that there are constant and challenging positions between state museums and commercial galleries on the one hand and changing platforms for emerging art on the other - on the one hand to better promote artists and on the other to create a more vibrant culture for the dialog between art and society. If you would like to support this work, please contact us.

The narratives in this exhibition were created by the artists. The text was edited by Gerald Chors.

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With the kind support of the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media

xpon-art is part of ART OFF HAMBURG

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Participating artists:

"stolen life" ::

Darina Dorogan & Oleksandr Zinevych

Thematic addition ::

Andrea Nimax, Arne Lösekann, Detlef Lemme, Frauke Weldin, Gregory Eltringham, Jacqueline Christiansen, Jens Jürgens, Johannes Groht, Kateryna Kozlova, Klaas Wurtmann, Margit Tabel-Gerster, Oliver Kelm, Paolo Moretto, Uli Golub

"I will live it for you" ::

Photos curated by Iryna Kudriavtseva and Anja Ellenberger

"The Street I Need" ::

Films curated by Kateryna Bosiachenko

Duration:

Thursday, March 20, 2025 to Friday, April 4, 2025

Opening hours:

Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays 6 - 9 pm and n. V.

Vernissage:

Thursday, March 20, 2025 at 7 p.m.

Finissage:

Friday, 04.04.2025 3 - 7 p.m.

Venue:

xpon-art gallery

Repsoldstraße 45

20097 Hamburg

www.xpon-art.de

We will inform you about deviating opening hours on our homepage, our Instagram account @xponartgallery and our Facebook page facebook.com/xponart

In the course of the exhibition, 360° views will be added to the homepage, especially for those who still have to avoid a visit.

Despite everything, we ask you to think about Corona and the flu epidemic and to behave accordingly.

Price information:

Free admission, because everyone should have access to culture. However, you are welcome to make a donation if you would otherwise honor it. Drinks are available for a donation. We don't offer anything that we wouldn't drink ourselves. We conceive these exhibitions and run this space because we think it is important that there are constant and challenging positions between state museums and commercial galleries on the one hand and changing platforms for emerging art on the other - on the one hand to better promote artists who are not yet established, and on the other to create a more vibrant culture for communication between art and the public.