Fragments of a reality that once was. Encounters with Ukraine in the Ludwig Collection
15.03.-01.09.2024
With Volodymyr Budnikov, Mykola Filatov, Sergey Geta, Evgeni Gordiets, Eduard Gorokhovsky, Ilya Kabakov, Andriy Kotska, Yuri Leiderman and Andrey Silvestrov, Yuriy Lutskevych, Petro Markovych, Anatoliy Masharov, Daniel Mitlyanskiy, Vera Morozova, Halyna Neledva, Arkadiy Petrov, Larisa Rezun-Zvezdochetova, Viktor Ryzhykh, Oleksandr Tyshler, and Leonid Voytsekhov
The Ludwig Forum for International Art is home to around 1,800 paintings, sculptures, and works of the graphic arts from the former Soviet Union and central, eastern, and southeastern Europe which Irene and Peter Ludwig collected between 1979 and 1996. Fragments of a reality that once was marks the launch of a re-examination, re-positioning, and new exploration of sections of this collection which in the past were inventoried under the category “Art from the USSR” and about which there is little information down to the present day. Moreover, the respective works and artistic positions will be re-contextualized in relationship to current art and cultural discourses, an approach facilitating a critical inquiry into the prevailing Western perspective on “Eastern European art.” This first exhibition of the research project of the same name considers a series of art works which are connected in various ways with Ukraine. The exhibition undertakes a revision, examining the vague and imprecise categorizations, terminologies, and contextualizing narratives–whether they be geographical, political, or art historical–with the aim to do justice to the diversity and complexity of a region most recently racked by tension and violence.
Curated by Galina Dekova