Young Biennale of Contemporary Art
Is it reasonable to talk about the emergence of a new generation of contemporary Ukrainian art representatives? How have the social processes of recent years influenced the artistic experience of young Ukrainian artists? To what extent the art of young artists is included in the world artistic context? To answer these questions and widely present the work of young Ukrainian artists are the aims of the Festival of Young Ukrainian Artists (Young Biennale)
A large contemporary art project, especially aimed at supporting young artists is a step to demonstrate that contemporary culture has the same weight as historical one. In fact, the youth biennial indicates a reversal of cultural policy in Ukraine. This does not mean that everything is very positive and all the changes are exceptionally positive, but this clearly demonstrates the direction of thought – from purely inertial financing of Soviet models and institutions to attempts to stimulate the emergence of a new.
The Festival of Young Ukrainian Artists is founded by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine. The Festival is to be realized in Biennial format every two years and to be housed by various Ukrainian cultural institutions.
The Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex and the National Art Museum of Ukraine were appointed to organize the festival in 2017. They were chosen as institutions that have a successful experience of holding events of such scale and are able to co-finance the Festival.
Ukrainian artists under age 35, with works performed in any kind of media (video, graphic techniques, painting, sound, land art, performative practices, projects for public space, text, sculpture, photography, various types of digital/new media art, as well as other genres, forms and means of artistic production), were invited to participate in the competition.
394 applications from Kyiv, Odessa, Lviv, Lutsk, Uzhgorod, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Rivne, Sumy and other cities were submitted to the Festival`s competition. In addition, applications from artists living or studying abroad, namely in Poland, the Netherlands, Austria, Lithuania, Canada, Israel and Italy were recieved. As a result 67 art projects were selected by the Festival on a competitive basis with works that are in tune with the Festival`s topic.
Contemporary art projects carry deep messages for society, embodying free spirits, bold pursuits and creative interpretations, and bring a fresh breath into the culture. It is expected that the Biennale will support the development of contemporary art of modern Ukraine, which would be integrated into the thinking of the world.
Biennale also has a strong educational component – specially designed training programmes for young artists and curators, for children and representatives of state and public institutions
State budget, partnership with public and private institutions