Presence, understood both as a physical existence in a place and as a mental involvement, becomes the central theme of many artworks. Art is able to penetrate the boundaries of time and space, enabling us to experience and understand situations that have happened in the past or are taking place somewhere else. Through art, we can feel the presence of people, places and events that are not directly accessible to us. Artworks are documents of sorts that convey to us information, stories and emotions related to specific moments in history or to given situations. It is important to note that art is not just a static record of reality. In the case of the Ukrainian artist, who talks about presence and being abroad, art becomes a tool to express identities, experiences, and perspectives.

Exhibition opening: 28/07/2023 (Friday) at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Galeria Labirynt 2, ul. Grodzka 3, Lublin
Accessibility: The exhibition is held in a space not accessible for people with motor impairments.
No English interpretation.
Exhibition on display: until 17/09/2023 (Tuesday–Sunday, 3:00–7:00 p.m.)
Admission: free
Curator: Mateusz Wszelaki

Through the exhibition “PRESENT”, we can get to know the artistic people who were at residency in Lublin. The video work consists of conversations exploring their lives and artistic practice, both in Ukraine and Poland. The individuals also share their political, cultural and philosophical beliefs. They talk about how they spent February 24, the first day of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, and the impact of this tragedy. In a graphic series entitled “War Diary”, the artist goes even deeper into the subject of the war in Ukraine. These works are his personal reflections, a documentation of the crimes he refers to through the use of mediated photographic and video reports from social networks. All of this takes us into the grim atmosphere of horrors not captured by cameras, fantasies and activist accounts.

In Eastern Europe, the recent history of social change, civil liberties discourse, art and queer culture are narratives that remain closely intertwined. The “Queerstories” project was created as a platform to explore these relationships. The research is based on the experiences of people from the two neighbouring countries, expressed in the form of art projects. The fates of Polish and Ukrainian society are intertwined and at the same time different in many dimensions; in this sense, they complement each other, providing insight into the complexity of the Eastern European condition.

In both Poland and Ukraine, the experience of non-heteronormative people has long been pushed outside the boundaries of public discourse, while the history of queer culture has not only remained largely unknown, but above all awaited critical elaboration.

The “Queerstories” project was created in response to this need, and in the belief that the inclusion of the experiences of non-heteronormative people and queer cultural history in discussions about the changes taking place in Poland and Ukraine is important not only for the LGBTQ+ community, but also for the community as a whole.

The “Queerstories” project is the result of a collaboration between two organisations. One is Galeria Labirynt in Lublin, which programmatically advocates for equality, civil liberties and democracy. The other organisation is the IZOLYATSIA Foundation, an independent art institution founded in Donetsk, which it had to leave in 2014 as a result of the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

“Queerstories” is a hybrid endeavour; it combines elements of a research process, an archive, a forum for discussion, a growing body of critical texts, and, last but not least, a digital platform for sharing and exchanging artistic projects. Now it also takes the form of the exhibition presented at Galeria Labirynt. It is based on video works and recordings of performative acts that creative individuals from Poland and Ukraine contributed to the project in response to the open call announced in 2021. The realisations presented in the exhibition make up a collection of individual statements based on the personal experiences of the authors. At the same time, each of these statements is part of a broader narrative – the lived reality of queer culture, which in Ukraine and Poland is a history that demands to be written, as well as a future that is being created right in front of us.

(Stach Szabłowski)

Exhibition opening: 07/07/2023 (Friday), 7:00 p.m. / opening will be connected to a promotion of the next issue of DIK Fagazine
Where: Galeria Labirynt, ul. ks. J. Popiełuszki 5, Lublin
Accessibility: The event will be interpreted into Ukrainian and English.
Exhibition on display: 1/10/2023 (Tue–Sun, 12:00–7:00 p.m.)
Admission: PLN 5 (free admission to the exhibition opening)

Events accompanying the exhibition opening:
– performance / Krzysztof Lubka;
– promotion of the new issue of DIK Fagazine and discussion with, among others, Karol Radziszewski;
– concert / Anatoly Belov.

Performances: Ala Urwał, Anastas Krusińska, Edmund Krempiński & Natalia Różycka, Filip Kijowski, Krzysztof Lubka, Szast Vladislav Serhijowycz, Vladislav Plisetskiy, Katya Kopieikina

Video: Anti Gonna; Anton Karyuk; Anton Shebetko; Daniil Galkin,; Daniela Weiss; Fyodor Khorkov; Liliana Zeic; Eternal Engine (Marta Nawrot & Jagoda Wójtowicz); Ryszard Czubak Sarmen Beglarian, Tomasz Fudala; Szymon Adamczak

The Queerstories_UA_PL project is organised by the Izolyatsia Platform for Cultural Initiatives, Galeria Labirynt and the Queer Archives Institute. The project was initiated by Alina Kleytman, inspired by Oleksandr Halishchuk. Curatorial team: Kateryna Filyuk, Alina Kleytman, Karol Radziszewski, Waldemar Tatarczuk.

The project is funded by the Goethe-Institut Ukraine and the European Union under the programme “HOUSE OF EUROPE”.
Responsibility for the content lies with the authors and the opinions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of the EU institutions and funders.