Portraits that speak
Personal exhibition of David Chychkan "Portraits that speak" was held from November 25 to December 24, 2020
Portraits that Speak is Davyd Chychkan’s personal project created within the framework of the artist-in-residence programme at Bereznitsky Art Foundation.
This project is a part of his on-going research on the texts of Ukrainian intellectuals of the modernism era. For Portraits that Speak Davyd created a series of alternative hryvnia banknotes (Ukrainian currency). On these “banknotes” Chychkan depicted portraits of Lesya Ukrainka and Ivan Franko as well as some quotes from their works, which, according to the artist, reflect their political views based on social and economical equality.
In this way, the artist once again draws attention to the emancipatory theses of the visionaries of the progressive Ukrainian social project, which remain revolutionary today.
In the works from the series Portraits that Speak Davyd Chychkan uses quotes from Lesya Ukrainka’s An Ancient Tale (1893) and In the Catacombs (1905), preface from Lesia Ukrainka’s translation of By What Do We Live? by Szymon Dickstein (1900) and her letter to Agatangel Krymskiy (1906), and also quotes from Ivan Franko’s pamphlet What is Socialism? (1878).
Davyd Chychkan (1986) is a Ukrainian contemporary artist who has been consistently working with socio-critical art, using his practice as an instrument for social transformation. His mediums include graphics, painting, street-art, and performance. Among his personal projects are: During the War (ArtSvit Gallery, Dnipro, 2016) and The Lost Opportunity (Visual Cultural Research Centre, Kyiv, 2017). Recently, Davyd Chychkan has participated in several international projects, among which are exhibitions Between Fire and Fire: Ukrainian Art Now (Vienna, Austria, 2019), Biennale Warszawa (Warsaw, Poland, 2018), Permanent revolution (Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, 2018), The Kyiv International — Kyiv Biennial 2017 (Visual Cultural Research Centre, Kyiv, 2017), 5th Odesa Biennale of Contemporary Art (Museum of Modern Art MoOMA, Odesa, 2017). Davyd Chychkan lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Bereznitsky Art Foundation is an independent institution, which aims to provide systematic support to contemporary artists and their practices development, present Ukrainian art abroad and show international art in Ukraine, expand interdisciplinary dialogue and cooperation through creative and research residencies, exhibitions, festivals, and educational events. The history of the Foundation dates back to 1994 when art critic and collector Lyudmyla Bereznytska founded L-Art Gallery of Contemporary Art in Kyiv, which since 2006 till 2014 has functioned as the Bereznitsky Gallery in Berlin and Kyiv. In 2014 together with her son, curator Evhen Bereznitsky, she established the Bereznitsky Art Foundation.
With the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.
More about the project: