Museum in full-scale war: art shelter, local stories and hope for a convincing “tomorrow”
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For almost one and a half years of full-scale war, every museum in Ukraine has its own unique story. Museums of the East and South have become a pain and at the same time a phenomenon of sustainability, Kyiv is mostly a story about finding new solutions – even in the integrity of buildings, renewing the mission, to which “to be a place where it is good and calm” was added, and unexpected collaborations. Until recently, the vibe of the museums of the western region was unexplored for me. What are they talking about now? How have they changed, how do they affect the visitor? So, traveling to Lutsk at the invitation of the Korsaki Museum of Modern Art, I had no idea what exactly I would catch and feel, because Lutsk compared to Kyiv, and even more so to Kherson or Kharkiv, Odesa, is a relatively calm territory – thank God, “without excesses “. Nominally, she went to see the creation of the world’s largest painting “Cosmogony”, which the artist from Horlivka, Petro Antip, has been painting since last fall in the space of the Korsaki Museum. The art object should reach 2,000 square meters. Some bright canvases depict mythological, religious stories about the creation of the world, the origin of life, and on the last one, Antipus promises to visualize the future of humanity. Petro Antip creates the painting “Cosmogony” in the Korsak Museum in Lutsk. Photo: press service of the museum Of course, there was a list of questions about how a full-scale war changed the life of the museum in a (I repeat) conditionally safe region. And in the end, I wanted to understand what occupied the huge areas of the revitalized plant, because the main exposition, like most Ukrainian museums, was removed by the Korsaks in the first days of the invasion. Read also: “If it weren’t for the collaborators, we would have saved the museum from the Russians.” Interview with the director of the Kherson Art Museum Unexpectedly, she found herself in a story about a completely different story – in Lutsk, she was struck by the things she defined as “her new optics” in assessing the museum in a full-scale war. I share my impressions of what I saw and the aftertaste that I experienced at home. The Korsaki Museum of Modern Art is showing the “Thoughts” project. Photo: Museum press service The museum as a safe place where everything is always “yes” The large-scale space of the private Korsaki Museum of Modern Art, which reaches 5 thousand square meters, is currently occupied by two large projects. In addition to the permanent exhibition, there are several large exhibitions, in particular, “Ukrainian Abstractionism: Dance of the Neocortex”, which presents the works of more than 40 Ukrainian artists, and the graphics exhibition “Ukraine in Black and White: Graphic Dialogues”. A separate part is occupied by the memorial museum of Mykola Kumanovsky. Some of the new objects are directly or indirectly related to the war. So, on the third floor of the museum in the center – Serhiy Hryhoryan’s wooden tank-greenhouse “Winter Gardening” – house plants are luxuriantly green inside. It’s a kind of war, which is already growing a little and integrated into everyday life and which is being defeated by the daily frenzy of life. But my first “taste” from being in the huge galleries of the Korsaks was unexpectedly different: I read it as safety, rest and a meditative space. The Korsaki Museum is showing the installation “Narcissus” by Anatoly Tverdy. Photo: the press service of the Museum At first, she simply enjoyed the world of large halls with a well-thought-out history, admired the aesthetics of bright rooms, and then moved on to living in individual paintings and reflections. At the same time, I remembered the thesis of museum workers after the opening of individual cultural institutions in the spring of 2022 – the art location now becomes a shelter. Then, in May, the phrase of Yulia Vaganova, head of the Khanenko Museum, resonated strongly: “When work was resumed, visitors came just to be in the museum – in a place where everything is as it was before.” Conditionally, it is about returning to one’s safe space (and here I recall the successful name of the incredible performance at the Dovzhenka film studio), the opportunity to be completely distracted and plunge into the world of paintings and art objects, which may have previously seemed distant, sometimes artificial. Now the space of the museum is about its ideal, about temporary protection from the news and from the rapid change of paradigm – someone has already created it in the Museum, it is safe. Read also: Without light, but with courage: how the youngest museum of Ukraine lives Projects about war, which cause a reaction, but do not traumatize At the time of my arrival in Lutsk, I came across one project “purely about war”, it occupied the main part of the first floor. Mostly, these are emotional art objects that have an aesthetic component and rather call for reflection than cause retraumatization. By the way, the couple of the visitors I met brought boys aged 6 and 10 to the first “war” floor. The 6-year-old visitor, looking at the art objects with toy soldiers and mini-techniques, loudly said: “I’m tired of this war” and immediately stopped at the small sculpture “Rashist”, where the enemy is presented in the image of a monkey-like creature with thorns. “Racist” – the boy read aloud and, looking around once more, summed up: “Exactly. Similar.” 2 large-scale projects and smaller exhibitions are ongoing at the Korsaki Museum. Photo: press service of the museum Meeting place with the “other”: stories brought and left by relocating artists Another important vibe that I read in the museum in Lutsk – I’m sure – before I would have said “party” – but now I felt it as a hub where everyone home. The artist Petro Antip, as I was told “from the threshold”, lives in the museum. She actually has a workshop across the street, busy with new sculptures, books, sketches and even posters on the walls. Gives the impression of a home. Now it really hit home. The artist, who was born and grew up in Horlivka, jokingly calls himself “homeless”. We talked about his 3 lost workshops: in Donetsk (in the 1990s, when Antip was in RUH), Horlivka (with the start of the war in Donbas) and in Kyiv region – from enemy attacks at the beginning of the invasion. Petro Antip creates a large-scale project “Cosmogony” at the Korsaki Museum. Photo: Press service of the museum Antip is a consultant to the founder in the museum, and a special attraction, because every day he draws a part of “Cosmogony” on the second floor. I watched as visitors came to him again and again, some stayed to talk. He says that they ask about different things: creativity, God, Donetsk region. He talks about Donetsk region with pride and fondness. He says that he is proud that he is from Donbas. (“Donetsk region – East of Ukrainian victory” – I remember the inscription on Victoria Amelina’s T-shirt). I caught myself thinking that such “accessibility” of an artist who talks and even “paints” about his home (local symbols and plots often appear in Antipa’s work) resonates with the concept of the museum. The Korsakis’ “feature” once became a local principle: a separate history of artists from Odesa, Kharkiv, Kherson Oblast, Kyiv, Lviv, Transcarpathia appears here. Viktor Korsak became a co-author and curator of the Cosmogony project. Photo: press service of the museum. It is interesting that since the beginning of the full-scale war, this principle of the Museum has manifested itself on the one hand, and on the other – has been nullified. According to the founder Viktor Korsak, since the spring of 2022, artists from different regions have visited here, and a whole pool of stories about them has remained, which, among other things, can be successfully circulated, demonstrating the paintings that are in the collection. For example, this story about the stay in Lutsk of the artist from Donetsk region, Roman Minin, “played” on me. In the hall on the first floor is his black-and-white painting, which depicts Minin’s “brand” subject – miners. It is clear, precise, somewhat gloomy. Now I see her only in connection with the story I heard from Viktor Korsak: while living in Lutsk, Roman painted colorful, positive subjects. He said that he depicted the war even before it began. In 2022, he wanted to paint in a different way – on canvases created in Lutsk, his miners danced. The museum that people come to between bowling and cinema By the way, the “homeliness” and openness of the Korsaki Museum is felt on different levels – from the interest of the employees in you to the informal communication of the funder with visitors. It is interesting that, on your way to the museum, you pass various typical shopping center locations: a supermarket, a cinema, a bowling alley, a children’s playground (everything is located in the premises of the former factory, and now the “Adrenalin” shopping center). “Cosmogony” should reach 2,000 square meters. Photo: press service of the museum The museum stands out, but observing the movement of visitors, I realized that it is “in the program”. Conditionally, the townspeople, who decided to spend the day in the shopping and entertainment center, come to look at modern art – and this is also about the “lightness”, which, obviously, correlates with the atmosphere of the city itself. Again, after hearing stories from the life of the Korsak museum at the beginning of a full-scale war, when the “art battalion” was active here, I imagined quite well how in the space of the museum they sang, danced, painted and generally lived a completely different life from the previous one, which was initiated artists-relocants and local activists. Afterwards, while walking through the halls, she drew in her mind such days of the art battalion, which brought the conventionally “respectable” institution and its public closer together. The Korsaki Museum presents the works of modern Ukrainian artists. Photo: press service of the museum The vision of the future is not so important as what the future promised And in the end, the aftertaste of visiting the Korsak museum was the realization of the importance of their message, hidden not so much in the large-scale project “Cosmogony” as between its lines. Literally the other day, the Book Arsenal ended – in the comments, a representative of the cultural “bubble” caught the opinion that everything we are talking about now (we were talking about discussions at the festival) is mostly aimed at the here and now – there is little future – both a global vision of the future and simply its definition Suddenly she realized that the very word “tomorrow” had grown so strongly during the war with unexpectedly rough connotations that even the light “see you tomorrow” is perceived as a very responsible message. So I would like more about tomorrow – just to fill it with form, physicality…faith, if you will. The project “Cosmogony” was presented to bloggers. Photo: press service of the museum In no way dividing Ukrainians into “here” (in Ukraine) and “there” (abroad) – I feel that “here” is still important. Not even to talk about what will happen one day: after the “anxious” night, after exhaustion, after the Victory – but for someone to unobtrusively assure – that the future will simply be, and record the right to this future, that is, say “until tomorrow” convincingly. And here actually “here”, in Kyiv, in this context I am now recalling the Korsaki Museum, where Peter Antipas’s performance “Cosmogony” continues. And the point is not even that its final part promises a vision of the future of humanity, which, according to the artist himself, is being asked about in Germany, where Antip has a workshop. And the banal thing is that the performance has to last for a whole long six months (“sooooo long” – here I stretch, stretch, taste). That is, I – as a viewer – can be sure: there is a plan for tomorrow – tomorrow-in a week-in a month Antip will draw his “Cosmogony”. And then she will be taken to surprise Europe with its scale and Ukrainian symbols, and then to the USA. But no matter where you are taken, the main thing is that the Show must go on. Petro Antip creates the world’s largest painting “Cosmogony”. Photo: press service of the museum Reference The Korsaki Museum of Modern Ukrainian Art was opened in Lutsk in 2018 in the premises of a former factory. It has an area of more than 5 thousand square meters. Founders Viktor and Olesya Korsaka created it as a gallery for a private collection, later the museum grew and became a popular art venue. During its existence, dozens of large-scale projects were held here, and in 2021 they began to plan their biennial of modern artists – a full-scale invasion prevented it, but the idea is under development. The museum’s main collection includes works by more than 100 iconic Ukrainian artists, from Kryvolap and Emma Andievska to Roman Minin and Anton Logov. After the start of a full-scale war, the Korsaks sheltered refugees and conducted art therapy.
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