KYIV ART FORT 2017 social & art project is an official art platform accompanying Eurovision Song Contest 2017 – “a platform for peace and peaceful Ukrainian art projects”, as the organizers call it. 62 artists and 21 projects were represented there, said Yuriy Komelkov, founder of cultprostir.ua and co-organizer of KYIV ART FORT 2017.
One of the projects was aimed to support students of art schools. “This is a very interesting project by School of Contemporary Art at Modern Art Research Institute,” said Yuriy Komelkov. Artist Anatoliy Kryvolap allocated a UAH 260 thousand prize fund to award five winners of the competition. There is a photo project by Andriy Kotlyarchuk and Anatoliy Kryvolap.
Three projects are dedicated to Crimea, Crimean Tatars and current political situation. The first project by Roman Mykhailov is a book made of car fragments in which Crimean Tatars were carried from the peninsula during deportation in 1944. The second project raises the issue of Crimea annexation. The installation consists of cups with sea water which evaporates, leaving just salt at the bottom of the cup. The third project is called “Deadlock: A Place to Think”. This is a changing room, constructed of metal and winded by a barber wire, symbolizing a “dead end” in relations between Russia and Ukraine after Crimea annexation. The aim of the artist was to show that it is necessary to look for a way out of this deadlock, Komelkov said.
On May 14, visitors are invited for a charity exhibition and auction aimed to raise money for treatment of soldiers wounded in the east of Ukraine and for renovation of “Kyiv Fortress” museum. On the same day, there will be presentations of cinema projects and art installations in cooperation with the Embassies of the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Romania as well as Center of Polish Culture.
All the events take place in “Kyiv Fortress” museum, not far from the downtown. The entrance is free.