From The Battlefield

From The Battlefield is an exhibition program that amplifies the direct testimony of those who provide evidence of the war in Ukraine and those who are fighting to protect freedom and hope more broadly. By presenting words, notes, images, documents, and works of artists, curators, and thinkers, From the Battlefield investigates life’s simultaneously banal and aspirational qualities. Each work acknowledges in large or small ways that flickering illuminations and sparks of hope, when amplified through social efforts, can be built into powerful forces.

From The Battlefield focuses on the strength of making small decisions of dignity and freedom when also sacrificing for victory in the circumstances of war. Cultivating small and fragile experiences that help individuals and communities live through inhumane conditions (these experiences grow into volunteering, crowdfunding and self-organized initiatives) can be as significant as earning the world’s solidarity attention or receiving material and tactical support. And to find ways to live when loved ones are being killed is a form of resistance. 

The programme was conceived by Maria Vtorushina who was invited for an emergency residency for artists and art labours through Artists at Risk.

Programme information

13.07 – 23.07.2022 SEA Foundation
Collective exhibition
Alevtina Kakhidze (UA), Nick Swarth (NL), Sasha Kurmaz (UA), Katya Buchatska (UA), Konstyantyn Doroshenko (UA), Evelien van der Peijl (NL), Yulia Protsyshyn (UA), Chantal Rens (NL), Leo Trotsenko (UA), Tamara Turliun (UA), Andrei Liashcuk (UA), Roos Vogels (NL), Chikako Watanabe (JP/NL).
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 13:00-17:00

13.07.2022 LocHal, Tilburg
19:30 Introduction. Curators’ talk and Katya Buchatska foreword.
19:45 (im)pressing process. Artist talk. Yulia Protsyshyn, Chikako Watanabe, Evelien van der Peijl, Yael Keijzer.
20:00 Why the rainbow doesn’t fit in the bear’s mouth. Performance titled ‘And nail polish is my weapon’. Nick J. Swarth, Kostyantyn Doroshenko. Music by Max Swagemakers.

14.07.2022 LocHal. Tilburg
19:30 Introduction. Curators’ talk.
19:45 One day you will grow back your thumb. Artist talk. Tamara Turliun, Chantal Rens.
20:00 Seeds of Europe. Performance. Alevtina Kakhidze with Roos Vogels.

21.07.2022 De Pont Museum
18:00 Artist talk. Katya Buchatska and Leo Trotsenko.

22.07.2022 Cinecitta
19:00-21:00 Film screening. “Homewards”, director Nariman Aliev.

23.07.2022 SEA Foundation
15:00 – 21:00 Finissage

Artists

Kostyantyn Doroshenko – Kostyantyn Doroshenko was born in Kyiv, graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (1989—1994). He is a historian. His graduate work was dedicated to European knighthood and courtly culture. Now Kostyantyn is a leading Ukrainian art critic, contemporary art curator, media manager, radio host of talk radio station Radio Vesti.  In the spring of 2015 Doroshenko published a book “The End of the Late Iron Age”. The book includes different author’s texts, published during the twenty years of his work in journalism as well as numerous archival photos.

Nick J. Swarth – Nick J. Swarth is an artistic quintet, active as a writer, poet, performer, musician and visual artist. His debut novel, ‘1980 – De plasserparadox’, was published in late 2020. It is the first part of a trilogy about a bankrupt city in the activist year 1980. Swarth was the second city poet of Tilburg (2005-2007), which resulted in the collection ‘Naked City Poems’. The catalogue ‘Horror Vacui | a docudrama in 14 staties’, is the report of a scandalous art project (in collaboration with Jeroen de Leijer). Poems in the public domain take shape in the project ‘On-Site Poetry‘ (in collaboration with Sander Neijnens). Website

Sasha Kurmaz – Sasha Kurmaz was born in 1986 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Currently he lives and works in Kyiv. Using photography as a medium to decrypt and mock the common world, he tends to bring unexpected experimentations into a deadly public space. In Kiev, Ukraine, Sasha explores his hometown as a playground; a playground where his art, if not changing the face of the world, will, at least, move it forward. Sasha Kurmaz  works with photography, video, public intervention and performance. He has participated in international group exhibitions and biennals. His work has been published in international magazines such as FOAM, Krytyka Polityczna, Libération, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Vice and YET. Website

Chantal Rens – Chantal Rens received her BFA at the Academie voor Beeldende Vorming in Tilburg, the Netherlands. With fine arts specialisation in three-dimensional art and textiles. In 2002 she won De Pont Atelier Prijs and Stimuleringsprijs Beeldende Kunst of Tilburg municipality. Her work consists of photographic collages and artists’ books. Since 2008 she has been collaborating with artist and cartoonist Gummbah and in 2014 they founded the publishing house PANTOFLE BOOKS in Tilburg. Her publications and paperware like calendars and card sets as well as clothing and home furnishings can be found in specialist bookshops all over the world. Website

Roos Vogels – Roos Vogels is a visual artist. Her work is a combination of art and almost scientific research. Nature is the source of inspiration for her. In her work, which consists of installations, sculptures, drawings and photos, she tries to fathom nature. Transience plays a major role in Vogels work, not only because she uses materials such as branches, leaves and soil. The emphasis in her work shifts from interest for the beginning of the cycle, to the intermediate stage – between the sublime and the dead. Website

Tamara Turliun – Tamara Turlyun graduated from the Faculty of Monumental Painting of NAOMA (Kyiv). Previously she graduated from KAMA (Kyiv) and DTAC (Dnipropetrovsk Theater and Art College). Tamara works with graphics, painting, video, mosaic, and sculpture. In the art world of Turlyun, there are no human policies, hierarchies, or tools of control that would facilitate the reading of her works within the familiar system of the anthropocentric world. In the ecosystem depicted by Turlyun, all beings are focused on maintaining a balance of coexistence. 

Chikako Watanabe – Chikako Watanabe was born in Kariya, a city in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. During her master studies at the ceramics department of Kyoto City University of Arts, she participated in an AIDS poster project at Artscape in Kyoto. She noticed that the Dutch posters had a totally different style to those of the neighbouring countries, and she became fascinated with the Netherlands and the Dutch. Watanabe moved to the Netherlands in 1995 and has lived and worked in Amsterdam ever since. For her projects, she focuses on local cultures and traditions of communities. On the basis of her findings, she makes mixed-media installations and often organises performances and workshops. Website

Evelien van der Peijl – Evelien van der Peijl obtained a BA in Graphic and Spatial design from AKV St. Joost in Breda. In 2019 she won the studio prize with her graduation presentation. Van der Peijl works as a designer on the fine line between graphic design and illustration. Her projects arise from social themes and their historical backgrounds. With an interest in history, she sources archival materials that are available online because the idea that man has been recording himself since the beginning of time intrigues her and keeps her busy in her practice. Evelien van der Peijl is part of Zut Mon Sac, a multidisciplinary artist collective in Breda. Website

Alevtina Kakhidze  – Having grown up in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, a region that is known for coal mining, she has experienced Ukraine’s abrupt and chaotic changes from the days of the USSR to the imbalanced environment after. Alevtina Kakhidze attended the National Academy of Fine Art and Architecture in Kiev (1999-2004) and the Jan van Eyck Academy in the Netherlands (2004-2006). She is United Nations Tolerance Envoy in Ukraine since 2018, the Kazimir Malevich Artist Award winner in 2008, first prize winner of the Competition for Young Curators and Artists, Kyiv, Center for Contemporary Art at NaUKMA in 2002. Website

Yulia Protsyshyn – Yulia Protsyshyna was born in Ternopil, Ukraine. At the age of 14 she went to the Boichuk Art School in Ternopil and over the next four years she received 8 distinctions. As a teenager she won six Ukrainian Art competitions. She became an apprentice to artist and printmaker Igor Zilinko in her last year of Art school who formulated her basic professional skills. She studied “Fine Arts and Graphics” at the Ukrainian Academy of Printing in Lviv, Ukraine. This Art Department has an established reputation and the foundation for many of the leading Ukrainian graphic artists. In 2012 she gained her Master’s Degree with honours under the guidance of her professor Sergiy Ivanov. Instagram

Leo Trotsenko was born in Novomoskovsk. He graduated in 2018 from Kyiv Academy of Media Arts. He is the co-founder of Periscope_ua. The focus of Leo Trotsenk’s artistic practice is the theory and history of music and art, subcultures and micro communities, Soviet heritage and the city; different stories with uppercase and lowercase (story) letters. Leo Trotsenko usually works with sound, performance, video, their intersections and land.

Katya Buchatska – Katya Buchatska lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine. She studied in the graphic design and book illustration faculty of the Kyiv Polygraphic Institute. In her practice, Katya Buchatska often works with the topic of time. She applies the methods of media, archeology, and often uses the tactic of “soft” intervention into an environment (gallery, museum, or natural space).  She is a member of an initiative to preserve the photographic heritage of Paraska Plytka-Horytsvit. She works in various media: painting, sculpture, installations, photography amongst others and since 2016 she works with people with autism spectrum disorders in art studio at PinchukArtCentre. Instagram

Curator

Maria Vtorushina is a curator and artistic director from Kyiv. Her curatorial projects are based on analyzing notions, concepts and practices of freedom and her main field of research are the history of queer art and the fight for human rights in Ukraine. Maria holds a Master’s degree in Art History from the National Academy of Arts and Architecture, Kyiv. Maria is a co-founder and curator of Set Foundation. The basis of Set exhibition activity is an anti-hierarchical collaboration between representatives of different ideas and schools in contemporary culture.