From Ukraine: Dare To Dream @ Venice 2024

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Entitled From Ukraine: Dare to Dream, when the world is in constant fear, the exhibition is held at the Palazzo Contarini Polignac in Venice from April 20th until August 1st, 2024. The exhibition is a continuation of PinchukArtCentre’s proactive engagement with Ukrainian art on a global and national stage since the outbreak of war in 2022.

The exhibition asks: ‘Can we imagine tomorrow? Do we have the courage to dream?’ The world has reached an inflection point: storms and climate change ravage lands far and wide, political extremes are seizing momentum. Russia's war in Ukraine unveiled an ongoing global power struggle that has brought war back to Europe. We are at a crucial moment where the future is hidden while fundamental changes are on the horizon.   

From Ukraine: Dare to Dream weaves a tapestry of stories and hopes grown within the shadows of global conflicts, including 22 artists and collectives: 
 

Alex Baczyński-Jenkins, Poland/UK 

Jennifer Allora, USA and Guillermo Calzadilla, Cuba

Anna Zvyagintseva, Ukraine 

Anton Saenko, Ukraine 

Dana Kavelina, Ukraine 

Daniil Revkovskiy and Andriy Rachinskiy, Ukraine 

David Claerbout, Belgium 

Fatma Bucak, Turkey 

Fedir Tetianych, Ukraine 

Kateryna Aliinyk, Ukraine 

Kateryna Lysovenko, Ukraine/Austria 

Lesia Khomenko, Ukraine/USA 

Nikita Kadan, Ukraine 

Nikolay Karabinovych, Ukraine 

Oleg Holosiy, Ukraine 

Oleksiy Sai, Ukraine 

Otobong Nkanga, Nigeria/Belgium 

Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk, Ukraine 

Shilpa Gupta, India 

Wilfredo Prieto, Cuba 

Yana Kononova, Ukraine 

Zhanna Kadyrova, Ukraine 
 

Departing from Ukrainian lands and its history of forced migration, the exhibition provides a platform for subdued voices worldwide, offering songs of resistance and resilience. It addresses Earth’s ecological disasters while imagining a new utopia, where mythology merges into an alternative garden of Eden. Exhausted landscapes bear witness to human violence—from extractive economies to the harsh realities of war—while carrying seeds of a new beginning. Amidst these overwhelming circumstances, the fragility of the individual is blossoming yet at risk. Its shadow is cast by touches, movement of nuanced lines as a part of unspoken verse, scenes of normality that question reality. They all converge into a possibility of acceptance.   

Can many struggles become the joint creation of a better future? After liberation, can former victims co-exist with former aggressors? Can empathy offer ways of common being in a space of conflicting memories?

Björn Geldhof, artistic director of the PinchukArtCentre and curator of From Ukraine: Dare to Dream, comments: "From Ukraine: Dare to Dream, provokes a challenge: dare to dream today, even as the world has reached an inflection point. Political extremes are seizing their growing momentum. Russia's war in Ukraine unveiled an ongoing global power struggle that has brought war back to Europe. With this exhibition we not only share a Ukrainian platform with artists from the African, South American and Asian continent. We actively try to imagine a better future well aware and always conscious of the violent reality we live in today." 

As the first centre for contemporary art in Ukraine, the PinchukArtCentre is a leading voice in developing the Ukrainian art scene; since the outbreak of war in 2022, it has played a vital role in protecting and promoting Ukrainian art and culture. At the 59th Venice Biennale, The PinchukArtCentre organized the collateral event This is Ukraine: Defending Freedom which brought new and historical works by Ukrainian artists to Venice, and saw President Zelensky give his first public speech on art at the opening of the exhibition.  

The exhibition will be accompanied by a dedicated audio guide created in collaboration with the artists.