In Edenia, a City of the Future
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In Edenia, a City of the Future

Yevgeniy Fiks

Nov 01, 2018
<p>Agnès Thur­nauer, <em>Born in, Live in (A State of Wom­enkind), </em><span class="numbers">2017</span>.</p>

Agnès Thur­nauer, Born in, Live in (A State of Wom­enkind), 2017.

Kalman Zingman’s 1918 Yiddish-language utopian novella In der tsukunft-shtot edenia (In Edenia, a City of the Future), published in Kharkiv, Ukraine, depicts a vision of Kharkiv 25 years into the future. Zingman’s Edenia is serviced by “airbuses” and fountains that keep the temperature at a comfortable level year-round. But the speculation is not merely technological. Edenia is also a place where ethnic communities live side-by-side in peace and harmony. When I first learned about the novella in 2011, while reading an article by Gennady Estraikh, I immediately understood that this was an important document -- it offered a rare and unique futuristic vision of a multicultural and high-tech Ukraine by a Yiddish writer. Surprising and hopeful, this novella engaged with provocative questions that remain timely and controversial to this day: the role of technology in modern life and how diverse groups can live in harmony. Already then, I believed that making an international contemporary art exhibition based on this material would be very thought-provoking.

<p>Quo­ta­tion from Kalman Zing­man’s <span class="numbers">1918</span> novel­la <em>In der tsukun­ft-shtot ede­nia</em>, with Eng­lish and Ukran­ian trans­la­tions. Trilin­gual quo­ta­tions from the nov­el appear through­out this arti­cle. You can click on a&nbsp;quote to scroll through all of&nbsp;them.</p>

Quo­ta­tion from Kalman Zing­man’s 1918 novel­la In der tsukun­ft-shtot ede­nia, with Eng­lish and Ukran­ian trans­la­tions. Trilin­gual quo­ta­tions from the nov­el appear through­out this arti­cle. You can click on a quote to scroll through all of them.

However, it became apparent to me and to my colleague, curator Larissa Babij, that making such an international contemporary art project around Edenia was even more important and relevant after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the beginning of Russian-Ukrainian military conflict in eastern Ukraine. At that moment, we felt that it was even more important to talk about visions of multiculturalism and co-existence of diverse peoples in Ukraine via the question of Yiddish or the Jewish question in general – something that seemed to have been generally absent from the conversation. Is there a space for a Yiddish utopia in visions of the Ukrainian future? We know from history about the enormous role that Yiddish played for centuries in Ukraine among both Jewish and non-Jewish populations.

<p>Quo­ta­tion from Kalman Zing­man’s <span class="numbers">1918</span> novel­la <em>In der tsukun­ft-shtot ede­nia</em>, with Eng­lish and Ukran­ian translations.</p>

Quo­ta­tion from Kalman Zing­man’s 1918 novel­la In der tsukun­ft-shtot ede­nia, with Eng­lish and Ukran­ian translations.

We aimed to address these questions through art. So nearly one hundred years after the novella In Edenia, a City of the Future was written and published, we invited an international group of contemporary artists to read the novella and create an artwork as if from the art museum of the imaginary city of Edenia, which is mentioned in the novella.

<p>Quo­ta­tion from Kalman Zing­man’s <span class="numbers">1918</span> novel­la <em>In der tsukun­ft-shtot ede­nia</em>, with Eng­lish and Ukran­ian translations.</p>

Quo­ta­tion from Kalman Zing­man’s 1918 novel­la In der tsukun­ft-shtot ede­nia, with Eng­lish and Ukran­ian translations.

Almost 6 years passed from the time I first read about this novella to the opening of the Edenia exhibition at Yermilov Center in Kharkiv, Ukraine in June 2017. After reading about the novella, I requested the Yiddish original from Estraikh, then commissioned an English translation from Khane-Faygl Turtletaub, and then started inviting artists to engage with it. Each artist received an English translation of Edenia and had multiple conversations and meetings with me or Larissa about the novella, Eastern European Jewish history, and the past and present of Ukraine, as the artist was developing his/her artwork for the exhibition.

<p>Quo­ta­tion from Kalman Zing­man’s <span class="numbers">1918</span> novel­la <em>In der tsukun­ft-shtot ede­nia</em>, with Eng­lish and Ukran­ian translations.</p>

Quo­ta­tion from Kalman Zing­man’s 1918 novel­la In der tsukun­ft-shtot ede­nia, with Eng­lish and Ukran­ian translations.

We gathered this art into an exhibition that ran from June 8–July 9, 2017, at the contemporary art gallery Yermilov Center in Kharkiv, Ukraine. The exhibition, which derived its title from Zingman’s work, was called In Edenia, a City of the Future. The exhibition presents the artists’ different visions as an invitation to look at our dreams from various angles, to take note of their colors, intonations, forms and rhythms.

<p>Quo­ta­tion from Kalman Zing­man’s <span class="numbers">1918</span> novel­la <em>In der tsukun­ft-shtot ede­nia</em>, with Eng­lish and Ukran­ian translations.</p>

Quo­ta­tion from Kalman Zing­man’s 1918 novel­la In der tsukun­ft-shtot ede­nia, with Eng­lish and Ukran­ian translations.

At a time when many Ukrainians were divided in their respective idealizations of the Soviet past as a golden era of social justice or the European Union as the promise of a future utopia, the exhibition—based on a novella written in a language that has practically disappeared from Ukraine—invited the public to examine the country’s multicultural history and its early Soviet dreams/nightmares in light of present-day political challenges and potentialities. We urged visitors to think critically about the appeal and comfort of a utopian dream, while simultaneously remembering past actions taken in the name of making an ideal image of society a reality. At the same time, we acknowledged the utopian nature of the very project of 21st- century contemporary art, where visibility (as revelation) has come to replace the visionary projects of the past.

<p>Quo­ta­tion from Kalman Zing­man’s <span class="numbers">1918</span> novel­la <em>In der tsukun­ft-shtot ede­nia</em>, with Eng­lish and Ukran­ian translations.</p>

Quo­ta­tion from Kalman Zing­man’s 1918 novel­la In der tsukun­ft-shtot ede­nia, with Eng­lish and Ukran­ian translations.

The highly international group of participants in the exhibition consisted of artists whose work Larissa and I knew or with whom we had worked in the past. The artists had a record of making projects that address history and politics and issues such as futurism, utopianism, and identity. We chose the artists because we believed they would make our conversation about the novella In Edenia, a City of the Future a global and international conversation—one that would address not only the history of Ukraine and Yiddish culture, but also the unfolding contemporary cultural, political, and social transformations in Ukraine and internationally.

<p>Quo­ta­tion from Kalman Zing­man’s <span class="numbers">1918</span> novel­la <em>In der tsukun­ft-shtot ede­nia</em>, with Eng­lish and Ukran­ian translations.</p>

Quo­ta­tion from Kalman Zing­man’s 1918 novel­la In der tsukun­ft-shtot ede­nia, with Eng­lish and Ukran­ian translations.

Kama Ginkas, Kalman Zingman’s grandson, now in his 70s, and an important Moscow theater director, traveled to Kharkiv by train to attend the opening of the exhibition based on his grandfather’s novella, though he had never known before that his grandfather - “a newspaper vendor” - had published literature. At the opening Ginkas drew attention to the novella’s dark and mysterious ending that seems to foreshadow the fate of Jews in Ukraine 25 years after its publication. Art has a way of giving form to sentiments and ideas before they manifest themselves broadly in social or political life.

<p>Quo­ta­tion from Kalman Zing­man’s <span class="numbers">1918</span> novel­la <em>In der tsukun­ft-shtot ede­nia</em>, with Eng­lish and Ukran­ian translations.</p>

Quo­ta­tion from Kalman Zing­man’s 1918 novel­la In der tsukun­ft-shtot ede­nia, with Eng­lish and Ukran­ian translations.

Below are photographs and descriptions of the different artworks included in the exhibition.

Participating Artists: Ifeoma Anyaeji (Nigeria), Babi Badalov (France / Azerbaijan), Concrete Dates Collective (Ukraine), Curandi Katz (Italy / Canada), Sasha Dedos (Ukraine), Aikaterini Gegisian (UK / Greece), Tatiana Grigorenko (US / France), Creolex Centre (Ruthie Jenrbekova & Maria Vilkovisky), (Kazakhstan), Nikita Kadan (Ukraine), Kapwani Kiwanga (Canada / France),Yuri Leiderman (Ukraine / Germany), Mykola Ridnyi (Ukraine), Haim Sokol (Russia / Israel), Agnès Thurnauer (France / Switzerland)

Curators: Larissa Babij and Yevgeniy Fiks

Artwork in the Exhibition

<p>Niki­ta&nbsp;Kadan</p><p><em>Rep­e­ti­tion of&nbsp;Forgetting</em></p><p><span class="numbers">2016</span></p><p><br></p><p>To break the bro­ken; for­get the for­got­ten – again. Repeat the farce – as a&nbsp;farce.</p><p>Pass on the lega­cy of men­dac­i­ty. Snatch a&nbsp;name, denounce it , and legal­ize old crimes under a&nbsp;new name. These actions will be accom­pa­nied by the orna­ment of con­spir­a­cy, gen­er­al unspo­ken under­stand­ing, the smile of the&nbsp;augurs.</p><p>Per­form some­thing like <span class="push-double"></span>​<span class="pull-double">“</span>a repeat exe­cu­tion of the Exe­cut­ed Renais­sance.” Pun­ish <span class="push-double"></span>​<span class="pull-double">“</span>on the grounds of Com­mu­nism” those who were liq­ui­dat­ed <span class="push-double"></span>​<span class="pull-double">“</span>on the grounds of nation­al­ism.” Or dis­sect them – ruined and exhumed – into ele­ments – <span class="push-double"></span>​<span class="pull-double">“</span>use­ful” and <span class="push-double"></span>​<span class="pull-double">“</span>erro­neous.” (Next the stage will be graced by coun­ter­ar­gu­ments in the spir­it of <span class="push-double"></span>​<span class="pull-double">“</span>art­works are inno­cent” or <span class="push-double"></span>​<span class="pull-double">“</span>it wasn’t all bad, it’s not worth dis­card­ing.” There will be attempts to depoliti­cize the work instead of re-politi­ciz­ing how one looks at it. Or attempts to per­sis­ten­ly dis­re­gard the his­tor­i­cal poi­son with which the present day is sat­u­rat­ed instead of learn­ing to use it as a&nbsp;remedy.)</p><p>Themes and images: The artists of the Boichuk school and their char­ac­ters under the wind of his­to­ry. The mes­sages of the <span class="push-double"></span>​<span class="pull-double">“</span>Exe­cut­ed Renais­sance” direct­ed at the present day – and the rea­sons why these mes­sages will not be heard. Faces from the Boichuk­ists’ can­vas­es (a cross sec­tion of Ukrain­ian soci­ety at the time of the Com­mu­nist <span class="push-double"></span>​<span class="pull-double">“</span><em>kor­enizat­si­ia</em>” pol­i­cy) on the leaves of Sovi­et office&nbsp;plants.</p>

Niki­ta Kadan

Rep­e­ti­tion of Forgetting

2016


To break the bro­ken; for­get the for­got­ten – again. Repeat the farce – as a farce.

Pass on the lega­cy of men­dac­i­ty. Snatch a name, denounce it , and legal­ize old crimes under a new name. These actions will be accom­pa­nied by the orna­ment of con­spir­a­cy, gen­er­al unspo­ken under­stand­ing, the smile of the augurs.

Per­form some­thing like ​“a repeat exe­cu­tion of the Exe­cut­ed Renais­sance.” Pun­ish ​“on the grounds of Com­mu­nism” those who were liq­ui­dat­ed ​“on the grounds of nation­al­ism.” Or dis­sect them – ruined and exhumed – into ele­ments – ​“use­ful” and ​“erro­neous.” (Next the stage will be graced by coun­ter­ar­gu­ments in the spir­it of ​“art­works are inno­cent” or ​“it wasn’t all bad, it’s not worth dis­card­ing.” There will be attempts to depoliti­cize the work instead of re-politi­ciz­ing how one looks at it. Or attempts to per­sis­ten­ly dis­re­gard the his­tor­i­cal poi­son with which the present day is sat­u­rat­ed instead of learn­ing to use it as a remedy.)

Themes and images: The artists of the Boichuk school and their char­ac­ters under the wind of his­to­ry. The mes­sages of the ​“Exe­cut­ed Renais­sance” direct­ed at the present day – and the rea­sons why these mes­sages will not be heard. Faces from the Boichuk­ists’ can­vas­es (a cross sec­tion of Ukrain­ian soci­ety at the time of the Com­mu­nist ​“kor­enizat­si­ia” pol­i­cy) on the leaves of Sovi­et office plants.

<p>Con­crete Dates&nbsp;Collective</p><p><em>Three Paint­ings in the&nbsp;Exhibition</em></p><p><span class="numbers">2017</span></p><p>Audio, paint­ings</p><p><br></p><p>The audio nar­ra­tion rais­es ques­tions about the val­ue of art – the ephemer­al­i­ty of beau­ty and the labor process that goes into the mak­ing of each paint­ing – as well as the rela­tion­ships between the peo­ple involved in the process of pro­duc­tion, sale, and&nbsp;enjoyment.<br></p>

Con­crete Dates Collective

Three Paint­ings in the Exhibition

2017

Audio, paint­ings


The audio nar­ra­tion rais­es ques­tions about the val­ue of art – the ephemer­al­i­ty of beau­ty and the labor process that goes into the mak­ing of each paint­ing – as well as the rela­tion­ships between the peo­ple involved in the process of pro­duc­tion, sale, and enjoyment.

<p>Aika­teri­ni&nbsp;Gegisian</p><p><em>Future Forms</em></p><p><span class="numbers">2017</span></p><p><br></p><p><em>Future Forms </em>is com­posed of images derived from pho­to­graph­ic albums pro­duced across a&nbsp;range of geo­graph­i­cal loca­tions and his­tor­i­cal times. The mechan­i­cal repro­duced pho­to­graph­ic image is the point of depar­ture for an arche­ol­o­gy of forms that ref­er­ences the four nat­ur­al ele­ments and con­structs through the blend­ing of col­ors and pat­terns a&nbsp;jour­ney across fire, earth, air and water. This ency­clo­pe­dic col­lec­tion that cross­es times, tex­tures, his­to­ries, dis­ci­plines and cul­tures fol­lows a&nbsp;sci­en­tif­ic sym­me­try in order to pro­duce a&nbsp;gram­mar, a&nbsp;new lan­guage of the mate­r­i­al&nbsp;world.<br></p>

Aika­teri­ni Gegisian

Future Forms

2017


Future Forms is com­posed of images derived from pho­to­graph­ic albums pro­duced across a range of geo­graph­i­cal loca­tions and his­tor­i­cal times. The mechan­i­cal repro­duced pho­to­graph­ic image is the point of depar­ture for an arche­ol­o­gy of forms that ref­er­ences the four nat­ur­al ele­ments and con­structs through the blend­ing of col­ors and pat­terns a jour­ney across fire, earth, air and water. This ency­clo­pe­dic col­lec­tion that cross­es times, tex­tures, his­to­ries, dis­ci­plines and cul­tures fol­lows a sci­en­tif­ic sym­me­try in order to pro­duce a gram­mar, a new lan­guage of the mate­r­i­al world.

<p>Agnès Thur­nauer</p><p><em>Born in, Live in (A State of&nbsp;Womenkind)</em></p><p><span class="numbers">2017</span></p><p><br></p><p>Born in, Live in maps the migra­tion of <span class="numbers">20</span><sup class="ordinal">th</sup>-cen­tu­ry women artists and intel­lec­tu­als born in Ukraine, East­ern Europe, Ger­many. The chairs in the paint­ing sig­ni­fy­ing con­nec­tion to a&nbsp;place, sense of belong­ing, and rep­re­sen­ta­tion. Each one embod­ies a&nbsp;spe­cif­ic char­ac­ter, tak­ing into account coun­tries of ori­gin and coun­tries of destination.<br></p>

Agnès Thur­nauer

Born in, Live in (A State of Womenkind)

2017


Born in, Live in maps the migra­tion of 20th-cen­tu­ry women artists and intel­lec­tu­als born in Ukraine, East­ern Europe, Ger­many. The chairs in the paint­ing sig­ni­fy­ing con­nec­tion to a place, sense of belong­ing, and rep­re­sen­ta­tion. Each one embod­ies a spe­cif­ic char­ac­ter, tak­ing into account coun­tries of ori­gin and coun­tries of destination.

<p>Babi Badalov</p><p><em><span class="caps">NO</span>(W) <span class="caps">FUTURE</span></em></p><p><span class="numbers">2017</span></p>

Babi Badalov

NO(W) FUTURE

2017

<p>Sasha Dedos</p><p><em>Fri­day Before the Last&nbsp;Saturday</em></p><p><span class="numbers">2017</span></p> <p>Sat­ur­day, the Sab­bath, is a&nbsp;day devot­ed to God, when work is for­bid­den. In the Chrisit­ian tra­di­tion, after the Cru­ci­fix­ion on Fri­day, the New Tes­ta­ment comes into force, and Sun­day replaces Sat­ur­day as a&nbsp;day of no work. In Sovi­et times, the idea of Com­mu­nism takes the place of the Divine; prayers give way to work songs. The <em>sub­ot­nik</em> (from the Russ­ian word for Sat­ur­day) is a&nbsp;day of com­pul­so­ry&nbsp;labor.&nbsp;</p><p><br><br></p>

Sasha Dedos

Fri­day Before the Last Saturday

2017

Sat­ur­day, the Sab­bath, is a day devot­ed to God, when work is for­bid­den. In the Chrisit­ian tra­di­tion, after the Cru­ci­fix­ion on Fri­day, the New Tes­ta­ment comes into force, and Sun­day replaces Sat­ur­day as a day of no work. In Sovi­et times, the idea of Com­mu­nism takes the place of the Divine; prayers give way to work songs. The sub­ot­nik (from the Russ­ian word for Sat­ur­day) is a day of com­pul­so­ry labor. 



<p>Curan­di&nbsp;Katz</p><p><em>Sev­er­al Attempts at Sewing the Bor­ders of Home­lands and Promised&nbsp;Lands</em></p><p><span class="numbers">2010</span> –&nbsp;ongoing</p> <p>A series of tex­tiles embroi­dered with the bor­ders of lands that are unrec­og­nized by inter­na­tion­al law. The artis­tic process uti­lizes the ped­a­gog­i­cal draw­ing method of blind con­tour line draw­ings, and is applied to the exer­cise of search­ing for the def­i­n­i­tions of the lines that define the bor­ders of unrec­og­nized lands. Forc­ing the sewing machine to fol­low the log­ic of a&nbsp;blind con­tour line draw­ing, the result­ing embroi­deries tes­ti­fy to a&nbsp;con­stant attempt at fol­low­ing and defin­ing a&nbsp;line that offi­cial­ly doesn’t&nbsp;exist.</p> <p>The ter­ri­to­ries embroi­dered on fab­ric are: Abk­hazia, Khal­is­tan, Kur­dis­tan, Nagal­im, Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnis­tria, Soma­liland, South Osse­tia, East Turk­menistan, Crimea, Basque Coun­try,&nbsp;Québec.</p>

Curan­di Katz

Sev­er­al Attempts at Sewing the Bor­ders of Home­lands and Promised Lands

2010 – ongoing

A series of tex­tiles embroi­dered with the bor­ders of lands that are unrec­og­nized by inter­na­tion­al law. The artis­tic process uti­lizes the ped­a­gog­i­cal draw­ing method of blind con­tour line draw­ings, and is applied to the exer­cise of search­ing for the def­i­n­i­tions of the lines that define the bor­ders of unrec­og­nized lands. Forc­ing the sewing machine to fol­low the log­ic of a blind con­tour line draw­ing, the result­ing embroi­deries tes­ti­fy to a con­stant attempt at fol­low­ing and defin­ing a line that offi­cial­ly doesn’t exist.

The ter­ri­to­ries embroi­dered on fab­ric are: Abk­hazia, Khal­is­tan, Kur­dis­tan, Nagal­im, Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnis­tria, Soma­liland, South Osse­tia, East Turk­menistan, Crimea, Basque Coun­try, Québec.

<p>Cre­olex Cen­tre (Ruthie Jen­r­beko­va <span class="amp">&amp;</span>&nbsp;Maria Vilkovisky)</p><p><em>Tran­sox­i­ana: A&nbsp;Tour for&nbsp;Newcomers</em></p><p><span class="numbers">2017</span></p> <p>This pseu­do-his­tor­i­cal pop­u­lar video-guide for tourists of the future was com­mis­sioned by the Cre­olex Cen­tre in the <span class="numbers">22</span><sup class="ordinal">nd</sup> cen­tu­ry. It tells the fan­tas­tic sto­ry of how, over the course of the <span class="numbers">21</span><sup class="ordinal">st</sup> cen­tu­ry, the five Cen­tral Asian post-Sovi­et republics trans­formed into a&nbsp;demo­c­ra­t­ic con­fed­er­a­tion of autonomous tribes – an absolute­ly new type of polit­i­cal enti­ty, which, aston­ish­ing­ly, sur­passed the lev­el of devel­op­ment of West­ern democracies.</p>

Cre­olex Cen­tre (Ruthie Jen­r­beko­va & Maria Vilkovisky)

Tran­sox­i­ana: A Tour for Newcomers

2017

This pseu­do-his­tor­i­cal pop­u­lar video-guide for tourists of the future was com­mis­sioned by the Cre­olex Cen­tre in the 22nd cen­tu­ry. It tells the fan­tas­tic sto­ry of how, over the course of the 21st cen­tu­ry, the five Cen­tral Asian post-Sovi­et republics trans­formed into a demo­c­ra­t­ic con­fed­er­a­tion of autonomous tribes – an absolute­ly new type of polit­i­cal enti­ty, which, aston­ish­ing­ly, sur­passed the lev­el of devel­op­ment of West­ern democracies.

<p>Ifeo­ma&nbsp;Anyaeji</p><p><em>Ezuhu ezu – (in[complete])</em></p><p><span class="numbers">2017</span></p> <p><em>Ezuhu ezu</em> means <span class="push-double"></span>​<span class="pull-double">“</span>incom­plete” in the artist’s native dialect of the Igbo peo­ple of&nbsp;Nigeria.</p><p><br><br></p>

Ifeo­ma Anyaeji

Ezuhu ezu – (in[complete])

2017

Ezuhu ezu means ​“incom­plete” in the artist’s native dialect of the Igbo peo­ple of Nigeria.



<p>Tatiana Grig­orenko</p><p><em>Human­i­ty Called Their Exploits&nbsp;Immortal</em></p><p><span class="numbers">2017</span></p> <p>If you look close­ly, deep in the woods, you may catch a&nbsp;glimpse of us. At first, you will dis­cern our mon­u­ments, emerg­ing from the bram­bles. Tes­ta­ments to our com­mu­ni­ty, sym­bols of our resis­tance; a&nbsp;new world. From out of the waste­land of the past, our slo­gans pro­claim our guid­ing light, pre­served for pos­ter­i­ty. These vir­gin lands bring up new&nbsp;heroes.</p>

Tatiana Grig­orenko

Human­i­ty Called Their Exploits Immortal

2017

If you look close­ly, deep in the woods, you may catch a glimpse of us. At first, you will dis­cern our mon­u­ments, emerg­ing from the bram­bles. Tes­ta­ments to our com­mu­ni­ty, sym­bols of our resis­tance; a new world. From out of the waste­land of the past, our slo­gans pro­claim our guid­ing light, pre­served for pos­ter­i­ty. These vir­gin lands bring up new heroes.

<p>Yuri Lei­der­man</p><p><em>Self-por­trait in Ukrain­ian&nbsp;Costume</em></p><p><span class="numbers">2013</span></p>

Yuri Lei­der­man

Self-por­trait in Ukrain­ian Costume

2013

<p>Myko­la&nbsp;Ridnyi</p><p><em>Grey Hors­es</em></p><p><span class="numbers">2016</span></p><p>Film, <span class="numbers">45</span>&nbsp;mins.</p> <p>The nar­ra­tive is based on the records of inter­views and mem­o­ries of rel­a­tives of the unknown Ukrain­ian anar­chist Ivan Krup­skyi, the filmmaker’s great-grand­fa­ther. Doc­u­men­tary and staged episodes inter­twine to reflect para­dox­i­cal peri­ods of the hero’s life: his lead­er­ship of a&nbsp;rebel group, par­tic­i­pa­tion in the civ­il war in the ear­ly <span class="numbers">1920</span>s, evad­ing per­se­cu­tion by pos­ing as a&nbsp;Sovi­et police­man, or work­ing on the con­struc­tion of a&nbsp;fac­to­ry. This nar­ra­tion of the past is per­formed by today’s heroes: con­tem­po­rary anar­chists, police offi­cers, stu­dents and work­ers. The episodes were filmed in the regions of cen­tral and east­ern Ukraine where these spe­cif­ic his­tor­i­cal events took place. Draw­ing par­al­lels between dif­fer­ent times, mix­ing real­i­ty and fic­tion, the film rais­es ques­tions about the con­struc­tion of his­tor­i­cal mem­o­ry and the glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of his­tor­i­cal fig­ures to serve cur­rent polit­i­cal&nbsp;agendas.</p>

Myko­la Ridnyi

Grey Hors­es

2016

Film, 45 mins.

The nar­ra­tive is based on the records of inter­views and mem­o­ries of rel­a­tives of the unknown Ukrain­ian anar­chist Ivan Krup­skyi, the filmmaker’s great-grand­fa­ther. Doc­u­men­tary and staged episodes inter­twine to reflect para­dox­i­cal peri­ods of the hero’s life: his lead­er­ship of a rebel group, par­tic­i­pa­tion in the civ­il war in the ear­ly 1920s, evad­ing per­se­cu­tion by pos­ing as a Sovi­et police­man, or work­ing on the con­struc­tion of a fac­to­ry. This nar­ra­tion of the past is per­formed by today’s heroes: con­tem­po­rary anar­chists, police offi­cers, stu­dents and work­ers. The episodes were filmed in the regions of cen­tral and east­ern Ukraine where these spe­cif­ic his­tor­i­cal events took place. Draw­ing par­al­lels between dif­fer­ent times, mix­ing real­i­ty and fic­tion, the film rais­es ques­tions about the con­struc­tion of his­tor­i­cal mem­o­ry and the glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of his­tor­i­cal fig­ures to serve cur­rent polit­i­cal agendas.

<p>Haim Sokol</p><p><em>Tes­ti­mo­ny </em></p><p><span class="numbers">2015</span></p><p>Two chan­nel video instal­la­tion, <span class="numbers">140</span>&nbsp;mins.&nbsp;</p> <p>Tes­ti­mo­ny departs from the mem­o­ries of the artist’s father, who was con­fined to a&nbsp;Jew­ish ghet­to in Ukraine dur­ing the years of the Sec­ond World War at the age of eleven and only lat­er was able to reunite with his par­ents in a&nbsp;par­ti­san brigade. The sub­ject of Anti-Semi­tism is absent from the offi­cial his­to­ry of both Rus­sia and Ukraine. The film is con­ceived as a&nbsp;memo­r­i­al or mon­u­ment and con­sists of a&nbsp;series of video per­for­mances in which sim­ple acts by two pro­tag­o­nists –the Angel of His­to­ry and the Migrant – take on an his­tor­i­cal dimen­sion. The text is based on the artist’s father’s mem­o­ries from the Holo­caust in Ukraine and on the artist’s own expe­ri­ence in con­tem­po­rary Moscow; it includes found frag­ments from Russ­ian offi­cial migra­tion records, Inter­net and street adver­tis­ing, and excerpts from books read by his father in&nbsp;hiding.</p>

Haim Sokol

Tes­ti­mo­ny

2015

Two chan­nel video instal­la­tion, 140 mins. 

Tes­ti­mo­ny departs from the mem­o­ries of the artist’s father, who was con­fined to a Jew­ish ghet­to in Ukraine dur­ing the years of the Sec­ond World War at the age of eleven and only lat­er was able to reunite with his par­ents in a par­ti­san brigade. The sub­ject of Anti-Semi­tism is absent from the offi­cial his­to­ry of both Rus­sia and Ukraine. The film is con­ceived as a memo­r­i­al or mon­u­ment and con­sists of a series of video per­for­mances in which sim­ple acts by two pro­tag­o­nists –the Angel of His­to­ry and the Migrant – take on an his­tor­i­cal dimen­sion. The text is based on the artist’s father’s mem­o­ries from the Holo­caust in Ukraine and on the artist’s own expe­ri­ence in con­tem­po­rary Moscow; it includes found frag­ments from Russ­ian offi­cial migra­tion records, Inter­net and street adver­tis­ing, and excerpts from books read by his father in hiding.

Art
refugees
migrants
utopianism
Modernism
MLA STYLE
Fiks, Yevgeniy. “In Edenia, a City of the Future.” In geveb, November 2018: https://ingeveb.org/blog/in-edenia-a-city-of-the-future.
CHICAGO STYLE
Fiks, Yevgeniy. “In Edenia, a City of the Future.” In geveb (November 2018): Accessed Dec 02, 2023.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Yevgeniy Fiks

Yevgeniy Fiks is a Moscow-born New York-based artist, author, and organizer of art exhibitions.

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