Kateryna Lysovenko
What Does My Dead Nine-Month-Old Uncle Think About His Debt to the Empire (2022)
Intervention
Kateryna Lysovenko, What Does My Dead Nine-Month-Old Uncle Think About His Debt to the Empire (2022), Courtesy of the artist
Dates
1.7.–1.8.2022
Location
Neue Galerie Graz
Graz
Part of
A War in the Distance. Prologue
In her site-specific intervention at the exhibition opening, Kateryna Lysovenko confronts visitors with the terrifying continuity of oppression that her family (like many others from Ukraine) has faced for generations, losing their lives and livelihoods in pogroms, wars, and famines. The medium for her personal memorial is socialist-style monumental painting, which she has been using to comment on the war since its outbreak, reflecting not only trauma but also indignation. Lysovenko establishes a new relation to this traditional genre by using its canvases as a fabric to cover and uncover her body, unwrapping them into a banner of the kind found at demonstrations. This work is both a visual slogan and a temporary memorial. Its origins might be personal, but once unwrapped, its message concerns us all.
Retrospective
Retrospective