In Odessa, young artists revisit the social realist Era

At the age of five, Vassily Kandinsky moved with his familly to Odessa, where his father managed a tea factory.

“Tea factory” is now the name of an active art center in Odessa where are presented art projects involving the young generation of Ukrainian artists.

With this idea of re-comprehension of the past Era in a nation largely faconned by three generation of “homosovieticus”, the latest show  “Goodbye, Vova” is devoted to the history and heritage of the socialist era in the mentality of the modern Ukrainian society.

The last decades have changed the Russian and Ukrainian realities: the streets were renamed,  new buildings were built, leaders had changed as well as anthems and flags, but the body of Lenin is still in the mausoleum,  as a symbol that connects the old and young generation, and reflects into the consciousness of the society.

The works of the exhibition are inspired by the “social-realism” images from the 60-70s, with Lenin as the main subject. The  approach of the artists is not to sneer over the age of socialism, but is rather an attempt to deal with the substitution of concepts and phenomena in history.

The artists of this project curated by Dmitriy Bannikov  are : Andrey Babchinskiy, Vazlav Yutash-Zyuzin, Albina Yaloza, Alex Bondarenko Anastasia Kirilina, Olga Lannik, Mariia Gonchar, Nikolay Lukin, Inna Hasileva, Juliana Alimova and Anna Bikova.