2022-4-27

The exhibition, Unstable Condition: Greeting From A Stranger, was initiated at the beginning of 2021 and was originally planned to have an exhibition opening in Ukraine with the following lecture programme at Artsvit Gallery in Dnipro as well in the National Art Museum of Ukraine in April 2022. However, as the Russian-Ukraine war breaks out, the physical exhibition has to be postponed, and instead, the virtual exhibition is launching on 25 April 2022. This exhibition features 11 groups of representative artists from Ukraine and Taiwan, presenting the political attitudes and social observations of people from both countries through visuals, and re-examining the changes in the world order of the two geopolitical bodies in the post-Cold War period. The artists continue to bear witness to Ukraine during the war while revisiting the atmosphere of the Cold War with apocalyptic prophecies of human civilization. The theme of this art project is "Unstable Condition", implying that such turbulent situations are not only happening to Ukrainians but to all. Our past visions of the future are being reconstructed. We hope that this art project will allow the audience to feel the tension of the current international situation through virtual reality, and render us see the world we are in now through the suffering experience of Ukraine and Taiwan. 

"Unstable Condition" is the theme of this art project. It draws on the experiences of Ukraine and Taiwan. They both are living under the "spoiling care" of their neighbouring powers while maintaining a passive and delicate security relationship with the world powers. And this delicate condition has been broken after Russia took military action against Ukraine on 24 February 2022. The current pandemic and war reveal the future we once envisioned is now re-orienting The current pandemic and war reveal the future we once envisioned is now re-orienting. This should be the time for human beings to unite and face the difficulties as a collective community, but human civilization is still stuck in the current political and ideological constraints, failing to break through the self-imposed ideological walls. During serious issues, the artworks are figuring out the dilemma of our nationality, navigating a delicate position for identity on the edge of power borderlines under the manipulation of reality and fiction. The participating artists and works in the exhibition translate their keen observation of the world’s operations and unique insights into their artistic creations, reflecting on their worldviews through the historical flood of the different stages of Taiwan and the U.S. people and the country’s technological development, and presenting the current realities and spiritual states of the two countries. For example, Taiwanese artist Che-Chi Lin’s fictionalised space exploration project of Taiwan and the United States harkens back to the early days of the space race, reflecting on the inability of Taiwan’s islands to form a collective identity despite the change of regime. The work Tailings Dam by Ukrainian artists Andriy Rachinskiy and Daniil Revkovskiy is a reflection on the past technological development of human civilisation, and through the investigation of the regional history of the industrial remnants of Ukraine, a retrospective on the progress of modern human civilisation through the catastrophe. 

This project is cooperating with Xctuality, a professional multimedia tech team from Singapore, to construct this virtual platform for our art project. Viewers around the globe can have access to this virtual art platform via one link. There are four functions on this site. In addition to showcasing the artworks by the Ukrainian and Taiwanese artists, “Hand in Hand” is one section open to art institutes, museums, art practitioners, and other agents around the globe in response to what is happening in Ukraine. We also wish to bring attention to the difficulty faced by the Ukrainian art and cultural industry. Furthermore, this platform encourages viewers' contributions to the comment board as a way to support the fleeing Ukrainian people. Last but not least, a section is dedicated to the donation portal. Everyone can donate directly to Ukraine through this platform without the mediation of the curatorial team or any third party.

Unstable Condition: Greeting From A Stranger | Online Exhibition

Launching Date | 25 April 2022
Online Exhibition Link | Click Here
Curators | Open Place(Ukraine) & Nien-Ting Chen (Taiwan)
Artists | A. Rachinskiy & D. Revkovskiy (Ukraine), Chaong-Wen Ting (Taiwan), Che-Chi Lin (Taiwan), Chih-Hsing Sun (Taiwan), Han-Sheng Tseng (Taiwan), Li-Ren Chang (Taiwan), Mykyta Lyskov (Ukraine), Oleksiy Radynski (Ukraine), Pavlo Kovach (Ukraine), Shake (Taiwan), Yevgen Nikiforov (Ukraine)