Displacements and torrents – where the rivers Dnipro and Elbe meet
9.10.2024 – 18.1.2025
Gallery Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris
Displacements and Torrents – Where the Dnipro and the Elbe Meet examines the role of artists from so-called “(post)socialist” countries in Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and beyond, in the French cultural landscape, against the backdrop of serious past and present events that lead to the forced displacement of humans and non-humans—animals, plants, material objects—along with cultural practices and creative techniques. The curators, Sasha Baydal, former resident at the Cité internationale des arts through the programme supported by the Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap), and Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez, Art and Culture Programmes Manager at the Cité internationale des arts, invite visitors to imagine a place where the waters of the Dnipro and the Elbe rivers, which respectively flow through the cities of Dnipro in Ukraine and Ústí nad Labem in the Czech Republic, merge into one tumultuous current. Like the two rivers that metaphorically come together, the exhibition intertwines multiple narrative threads and different temporalities: the Cold War period, the post-socialist transition and the contemporary era, where unresolved issues from the past resurface.
Displacements and Torrents – Where the Dnipro and the Elbe Meet highlights the constant mobility of communities and artists between these regions and with France, starting from the 1970s. It explores their trajectories in relation to their artistic practices and personal histories. It offers an intergenerational perspective that, amongst other sources, draws upon works from the Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap) collection, several of which were created by former and current residents of the Cité internationale des arts.
Through artworks, artistic practices, and archival documents, the exhibition sheds light, using a decolonial and situated approach, on the power relations in the region and their resonance in France. Anchored in a space-time marked by Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine and the changes it brings, it addresses the continuity of colonialism worldwide: Who is subjected to displacement or confined to a place? Who has the right to mobility, and who decides it? What role does cultural diplomacy play in this movement? And finally, what power dynamics influence the representation of “(post)-socialist” regions in France and Western countries?
Curated by: Sasha Baydal and Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez
With the artists: Louisa Babari, Abel Barroso Arencibia, Maja Bajević et Emanuel Licha, Commercial public art (Svitlanka Konoplyova et Borys Medvediev), DAVRA Collective (Valeriya Kim, Dona Kulmatova, Zumrad Mirzalieva et Saodat Ismailova), Robert Gabris, Danylo Halkin, Petrit Halilaj, Song Huai Kuei (Madame Song), Ilya Kabakov, Nikolay Karabinovych, Zdena Kolečková, László Méhes, Sandra Muteteri Heremans, Halyna Neledva, Nonument Group (Neja Tomšič, Martin Bricelj Baraga, Nika Grabar et Miloš Kosec), Minh Thắng Phạm, Vincent Rumahloine, Araks Sahakyan and Rebecca Topakian, Souli Seferov, Masha Svyatogor, Maryn Varbanov, Evita Vasiljeva, Akram Zaatari
With contributions by: Archives of the City of Ústí nad Labem, Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap), Vít Havránek, Bogdan Konopka, Stojan Koujumdjiev, Wanda Mihuleac, Radu Stoica, Vladimir Tverdokhlebov ; and the Cité internationale des arts’ archive
NONUMENT GROUP is a research and art collective that deals with processes of remembering and forgetting in space. Their activities concern the research of nonuments – architecture, monuments, public spaces, infrastructure – whose meaning has been transformed by social or political change. In doing so, they create archives, organise field events and explore diverse strategies for creating artistic interventions that interrogate the meaning of heritage in space through the experience of the present. Nonument Group consists of Neja Tomšič, Martin Bricelj Baraga, Nika Grabar and Miloš Kosec. Their projects involve collaboration with a wide range of co-creators, researchers and artists internationally. For their contribution to the enrichment of architectural culture, in 2021 they were awarded the Plečnik Medal, the highest national prize in the field of architecture, with the justification: ‘Like Nonument itself, the work of the group does not function as a definitive action, but as a space for reflection. Nonument addresses the current and alarming state of the space that surrounds us, including its symbolic meanings.” (- from the prize’s justification: http://www.drustvo-dal.si/pdf/Ple.knjizica.21PRESS.pdf)
Nonument Group’s works have been exhibited at U3 – Triennial of Slovenian Literary Art: Against the Flow of Time, the 35th Ljubljana International Graphic Biennial, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Ljubljana, Cukrarna, MAO – Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana, the Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts, Creative Time Summit in New York, ISEA in Durban, Construction in Dnipro, Ukraine, Svetlobna gverila in Ljubljana and Speculum Artium in Trbovlje.
The Cité Internationale des Arts is a cultural and residential centre in the heart of Paris that has hosted artists from all over the world since 1965. Since 2020, it has also been home to a gallery space, which hosts thematic and curated exhibitions, often drawn from the Cité’s cultural legacy and partner collections, as well as from the ongoing production taking place at the residency centre. The exhibitions are well-received and very well attended.
Nonument Group’s participation is supported by Municipality of Ljubljana, Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia Paris, Cité Internationale des Arts Paris.
