Apparatus 22. Hope Sank Teeth Into The Night

Apparatus 22
HOPE SANK TEETH INTO THE NIGHT
23.01.2018 - 20.02.2018

Curated by Sergey Kantsedal
Сoordinated by Daria Shevtsova


The first solo show in Ukraine of the art collective Apparatus 22, “HOPE SANK TEETH INTO THE NIGHT”, is drawing on a odd viewpoint: understanding the day(time) as extension of the night(time); An afterthought of the afterdark.

The exhibition is shaped as a direct, yet surprising answer to the very unique setting of the Closer Art Center. Associated with Closer – an iconic club of contemporary Kiyv set within a post-industrial complex, the exhibition space was, until recently, used for raves: it features hermetically closed interiors repurposed from typical “club” architecture.

In troubled places – Kiyv included – clubbing proves to be a fierce escape from everyday routine. It can very well turn into a political gesture too. A survival strategy no doubt.

First time shown in such a peculiar context, several new works and site specific versions of recent installations by Apparatus 22 are bringing to the fore the topic of resistance in the face of a tedious status quo. The collective is very much interested in clubbing as a social and political phenomenon, underlining its counter cultural narrative. Despite its commodification by the cultural mainstream, clubbing still provides a space in which to share common feelings and emotions as one of the most powerful tools for empowering a community.

In “HOPE SANK TEETH INTO THE NIGHT” exhibition Apparatus 22 is interested in the fragile after-afterparty evoking precisely a liminal state: in between escapism and its dramatic collision with reality, between excitement and tumultuousness, anxiety and daydreaming.

How can we put the intensity, the feeling of unrest, the freedom of the (rave) nights at work to make some cracks in the ways our bleak reality functions? How can we shift our own perspective and transcend the everyday? And last but not least, how can hope be used as a powerful tool of critique in a situation of relativism, distinctive of the dominant discourse?

It is not by chance that Apparatus 22 choose to navigate the cruel waters of reality under the flag of hope, a rather romantic gesture. To this effect, the group has even coined the term “SUPRAINFINIT”, indicating a parallel universe somewhere beyond the infinite; this state of SUPRAINFINIT, which is similar to our own world only at a superficial glance, turns into a utopian container for empowering their most audacious ideas about identity politics and cultural definitions. These kinds of ideas, all of them “ephemeral and beyond normalization, in fruitful incongruity with our reality and embedded prospects,” run through the very diverse works produced by Apparatus 22, including installations, performances, and texts.

“Hope is a new oxygen,” not without pathos they say. It is difficult to disagree. An the works in this exhibition might prove one day to be more than a daydream.

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The exhibition is accompanied by an artist talk Apparatus 22: Artist talk at Closer Art Centre on Friday, January 25 at 19:00 and by “Positive Tension. Curating kit” durational performance on Saturday, January 26 starting from 16.00.

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This project was made possible thanks to the support of British Council (Kiyv)
Special thanks to add (Bucharest), Temad (Brasov), Natalia Matsenko and Ksenia Malykh

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Apparatus 22 is a transdisciplinary art collective founded in January 2011 by current members Erika Olea, Maria Farcas, Dragos Olea together with Ioana Nemes (1979 – 2011) in Bucharest, Romania. Beginning with 2015 they are working between Brussels and Bucharest. They see themselves as a collective of dreamers, researchers, poetic activists and (failed) futurologists interested in exploring the intricate relationships between economy, politics, gender studies, social movements, religion and fashion in order to understand contemporary society. In their very diverse works – installations, performances, text based-shapes, reality is mixed with fiction and storytelling and all merge with a critical approach drawing knowledge & experience from design, sociology, literature and economics.

The work of Apparatus 22 was presented among others in exhibitions at La Biennale di Venezia 2013, MUMOK, Vienna(AT), Kunsthalle Wien (AT), Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles (BE), Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (DE), Ujazdowski Castle – Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw (PL), Museion, Bolzano (IT); performances at MAK, Vienna (AT), Steirischer Herbst, Graz (AT), Stedelijk Museum with De Appel CP Amsterdam, (NL), Yarat Academy, Baku (AZ), Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart (DE), Drodesera Festival, Dro (IT), etc.; Apparatus 22 also works beyond institutions via performances in public spaces, interventions in private spaces and other hybrid forms.

Sergey Kantsedal is curator from Kharkov based in Turin, Italy. Since 2017 he is coordinator of the non-profit art space Barriera (Turin). Together with Barbara Casavecchia he is also co-curator of OGR YOU (Young Adults) CLUB & TALKS – an educational program for young adults at OGR Officine Grandi Riparazioni (Turin). He also works independently, collaborating closely with artists to produce projects and events.

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Opening January 23 with 19:00.

Exhibition visiting program
Tuesday-Friday 11.00-20.00
Saturday 12.00-20.00
Free entrance

Closer Art Center
Nyzhnoiurkivska St, 31, Kyiv.
e-mail: okprojectsmail@gmail.com