In her practice, which is largely based on Ukrainian national culture, heritage, folklore, Soviet iconography and the human experience of integration into a new socio-cultural space, the artist experiments with Soviet artifacts, which she subsequently integrates into the spatial layout.
In her work, she explores the nature of decommunization, the Soviet legacy and the post-Soviet reality and its consequences. Here, she is interested in trying to preserve, archive and transmit the cultural value of an object by transforming the artistic motif and image. The work Where Should the Russian Warship Go? refers to an event that took place during the Russian-Ukrainian war – the response of Ukrainian soldiers to the Russian cruiser “Moscow”, which approached the Ukrainian Snake Island on February 24, 2022. “I am a Russian warship. I suggest that you lay down your arms and surrender, in order to avoid bloodshed and unnecessary casualties. Otherwise, you will be bombarded.” The phrase “Russian warship, go fuck yourself!” was the response of the Ukrainian soldiers to the aggressor. The event resonated in the media, as a result of which the above-mentioned phrase gained cult statues and even acquired the form of a meme, and the subsequent sinking of the cruiser “Moscow” was perceived by the Ukrainian public as a logical manifestation of the sentence, the response of the Ukrainian soldiers to the threats of the occupier.
The objects, condensed and limited by the way they are placed, by moving away from the space of canonical installations, encourage inclusion in the manner of research. Their meaning can be explored through the relationship of the artifacts with the world, the current historical testimony, that of the future, and also through the way of purposeful placement in the space. The collection of objects exists within the context of its fictive temporality and the historical fact that is reevaluated. The layout suggests a process of analyzing, sorting and creating an arrangement where objects are assigned purpose and symbolic value. The archaeological metaphor, represented by a set of artifacts, testifies to the importance of the past for the individual who accumulated these artifacts and for the researcher or viewer who has the privilege of evaluating their symbolic value after the passage of time.
The spatial installation Where Should the Russian Warship Go? questions the meaning of the new musealization process, and the materialization of memory within a work of art as a method of artistic research dictates reflection on the role of (Soviet) heritage.
Svitlana Ryabishchuk (1998) graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in 2020. She is currently enrolled in a parallel master’s degree in painting and graphics, and also works in these fields. She has participated in several group exhibitions, including at the Modri Kot gallery, as part of the Tam-tam poster exhibition, at Skedenj, DobraVaga, Cukrarna, the Bank of Slovenia, and GT22. For the latter, she received the Primavera charter. She is a member of the 19th generation of the World of Art, School for Curatorial Practices and Critical Writing.
