Going amiss and finding yourself by touch. PinchukArtCentre opened REFLECTION exhibition

PinchukArtCentre celebrates its second year by opening REFLECTION exhibition, which showcases the newest acquisitions from PinchukArtCentre's collection. From October 6 visitors of the art-centre are able to see paintings, sculpture artwork, installations, photos and video installations created by the best artists of XXI century from Great Britain, Germany, Mexico, Poland, USA, Ukraine and Japan among which: Antony Gormley, Andreas Gursky, Damien Hirst, Christian Marclay, Sarah Morris, Marc Quinn, Sam Taylor-Wood, Piotr Uklanski, Gabriel Orozco, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Peter Doig, Richard Phillips, Vasyl Tsagolov, Illya Chichkan & "Blue Noses", Serhiy Bratkov, Arsen Savadov. Exhibition works till December 30, 2007.

At the exhibition opening Victor Pinchuk, the founder of PinchukArtCentre, said - "I want Kyiv to become one of the hubs of contemporary art, and I also believe that contemporary art should facilitate in modernizing our young state."

A special guest of the official opening Jeff Koons, one of the most prominent contemporary artists ranked among the top ten most influential persons of the contemporary art by ArtReview magazine, said: "I think that this space is wonderful and the works are placed so that viewers could interact with them. Because art is something that is happening inside a viewer. This is not what one sees on the walls. This is what is happening inside of each one."

"This is a beautiful exhibition. One can feel its implication instantly. This is a true art, which is why different artists have much in common with each other. I really did nor worry that Ukrainians not understand me. In my works I try to speak a common language", - he added.

According to president of PinchukArtCentre and director of Centre for Contemporary Art "Baltic" (Great Britain) Peter Doroshenko, "this exhibition starts right from the street. There stands a man made of glass and metal. This is Antony Gormely's work. The exhibition is called REFLECTION. It means a lot. It means to reflect upon life, death, love, and God. This is what we have inside each of us... "

Victor Pinchuk presented to the guests one of the most extraordinary pieces of the exhibition - an installation designed by a British sculptor and architect Antony Gormley - "Blind Light", which is located on a new floor, specially redesigned for new projects of the gallery.

Inspired by architecture of Bauhaus, Gormely created an unusual architectural structure made of glass, metal, and steam, which will turn the viewers into actors. The "Blind Light" enables one to experience dissolution of his/her body and offers viewers to go amiss in dense and wet fog that seems to be touchable. This work by Antony Gormely, a British sculptor, artist and engineer, has embodied his efforts in exploring the nature of human metamorphoses.

Prior to the Reflection exhibition, the installation was shown only once, in summer 2007, in Hayward gallery, Landon, at a solo exhibition of "Antony Gormley: Blind Light". The number of viewers who visited the "Gormely room" during 3 months made up 210 000 persons.

The REFLECTION exhibition is focused on sensitivity to art as a boundless and plentiful source of spiritual inspiration and meanings. The new works of the centre were shown only once or twice. Being jointly shown within one exhibition, they represent something universal for analyzing fundamental issues of human existence such as: life, death, science religion, motherhood, love, immortality, and art itself. Each of the artists explores these issues in a different way, both at the level of universe and at the level of everyday life.

According to the curator of the exhibition, Alexander Solovyov: "Reflection is contemplation on raison d'etre of human existence and on boundary layers of culture. As far back as from ancient times, reflection has been considered the most important way of human self-discovery, its development, and perfection. A key reflective position is a permanent inoculation of ideology of doubting and a critical self-esteem. A virus of criticism literally permeates contemporary art and unceasingly questions itself, its possibilities, and limits. Such issues are touched directly or indirectly by the exhibition of the new collection at PinchukArtCentre as well. Unlike their colleagues in the past, contemporary artists have lost faith in messianic designation of art and reflection has become one of its main methodological instruments.

Displaying the works of the leading artists to Ukrainians, PinchukArtCentre also discovers contemporary Ukraine to the artists themselves. The opening of the exhibition was attended by Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley, Andreas Gursky.

Jeff Koons and Antony Gormley, as well as other participants of the exhibition - Ukrainian artists Serhiy Bratkov, Arsen Savadov, Vasyl Tsagolov, and lllya Chichkan - took part in a round-table session "Artist of XXI century" held on the eve of the exhibition opening.

Immediately after the exhibition opening on October 6 2007 it draws a considerable attention of the viewers - during two days of the exhibition work it was attended by more than 6 thousand persons.

REFLECTION exhibition in PinchukArtCentre will be available from 6 October to 30 December 2007 from Tuesday through Sunday: 12:00 - 21:00. Closed Monday. Admission is free.

PinchukArtCentre (Kyiv, Ukraine) is one of the largest centres for contemporary art in Eastern Europe. Its key activities include arranging exhibitions, seminars, workshops, providing support to cultural projects, etc. Since it was opened in September 2006, it hosted four large exhibitions: "First acquisitions", "GENERATIONS.UsA", "Vik Muniz: Expertise ", "Instinctive Eye: selected photographs from the collection of Sir Elton John". More than 145,000 thousand people have visited PinchukArtCentre.

High-resolution photos of the Reflection exhibition are at the Internet site of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation:

http://pinchukfund.org/en/media/photo-gallery/2007/470.html 

http://pinchukfund.org/en/media/photo-gallery/2007/478.html  

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