Venice Biennale: Against all odds, a Ukrainian artist and his curators bring ‘Fountain of Exhaustion’ to Venice

On the evening of February 24, just hours after Russia launched an all-out assault on Ukraine, art curator Maria Lanko got into her car and left her home in Kyiv. Unsure of her exact plans, and with a potentially dangerous journey ahead, she packed a few personal items in the trunk along with 78 bronze funnels by one of the artists. The country’s most important living scholar, Pavlo Makov. Her mission is to drive them out of the country to safety.

Last summer, 63-year-old Makov and his team of curators – including Lanko – won a place to represent Ukraine at the Venice Biennale, a prestigious international event known as the “Olympics” of the world. art world. The funnels are a key part of their proposed entry, a fountain sculpture known as the “Fountain of Exhaustion”.

The artwork was first conceived in Kharkiv, a city in northeastern Ukraine where Makov has lived and worked for more than three decades. It was the mid-90s and the post-Soviet country was still going through a period of transition after the people voted for independence in a 1991 referendum. The fountain was intended to be a hidden gem. example of the social and political exhaustion that Makov has witnessed as his country grapples with the economic and civil challenges of rebuilding an independent nation. The constant water shortage in the city also prompted him to look at the project from an ecological perspective as he pondered the idea that resources are finite.

Over the years, “Fountain of Exhacharge” has taken many forms, from sketches and prints to technical drawings and physical installations. The version planned for Venice is the first fully operational fountain, with 78 funnels mounted in such a way that the original water divides iteratively as it descends in a triangular, flowing pattern. weakens until it reaches the bottom.

A week before Russia invaded Ukraine, Makov and his team ran tests on the newly built fountain to make sure the water was flowing properly. Thanks to design and technical support from Forma (ФОРМА), an architecture firm based in Kyiv, the installation went live. The team was very excited.

Soon, everything changed. While the threat of conflict was brewing, giving the team time to consider contingencies, the surprise attack on Ukraine made it possible to open the installation in Venice, less than a year later. two months, seems impossible.

Journey from Ukraine to Italy

Personal safety was the group’s top priority in the early days of the conflict, as they scrambled together to scramble escape and shelter plans with family and friends. One of Lanko’s co-managers, Lizaveta German, was heavily pregnant and was living in an apartment in Kyiv when the war started. With just a few days to go before the scheduled launch of the first rocket, Germany wants to stay in the city to be close to her maternity ward. But as the situation worsened, she and her husband made the difficult decision to move west to Ukraine’s cultural capital Lviv, a city that is less immediately threatened. There she was joined by the third co-curator of the project, Borys Filonenko.

Meanwhile, Lanko was still driving. After six days on the road, 78 funnels stuffed into three boxes, she crossed the border to Romania. Then, exhausted from the almost constant travel, she made a rest stop in Budapest, Hungary, before ending up in the Austrian capital, Vienna.

Pavlo Makov with a version of the ‘Fountain of Exhaustion’ mounted on Oleh Mitasov’s house in Kharkiv (1996) Credit: Courtesy of Pavlo Makov

There she waits for Makov, who is working on his own evacuation plan. He was in Kharkiv when the war started, gathering his family in his apartment for the first two days. However, the city was so heavily shelled that they were forced into a bomb shelter for almost a week, and when the situation worsened, the artist decided to flee, driving out of the city with 92-year-old mother, wife and two other women.

German gave birth to a baby boy on March 16 in Lviv. Speaking to CNN in a hotel in the city ten days later, she reflected on the role of art in times of extreme crisis. “I believe that art has this symbolic potential to celebrate people’s lives and to show that we are still here – to show that Ukraine is more than just a victim of war,” she said.

By that time, Lanko had reached Italy. She found a production company in Milan that agreed to recreate parts of the construction she had left behind in Ukraine.

Suddenly, it seemed – against all odds – that they would make it to Venice. Team members are also increasingly conscious that they should act as ambassadors for their country. As Ukrainians fight Russia on the front lines, serving in hospitals and taking on volunteer roles, Makov and his team are beginning to build a different kind of defense against the invasion.

“Ukrainian art has been overshadowed by Russia for a long time,” Duc said, hugging her son in his arms. “The cultural sector must also be a battlefield, and we must fight.”

Weeks later, Lanko, Filonenko, Makov and German (along with her newborn baby) were finally reunited in Venice to complete the final preparations together.

Care ‘paid in blood’

Speaking on Monday, two days before the press announced the project, Makov said he does not think of himself as an artist but as a citizen of Ukraine with a duty to represent his country.

“I realized that it was important for Ukraine to be represented (at the Biennale).”

Nikita Kadan ‘The Difficulties of Profanation II’ (2015-2022) with “Max in the army” background by Lesia Khomenko Credit: Pat Verbruggen / Courtesy Pinchuk Arts Center and Victor Pinchuk Foundation

With a wave of interest from the media and the art world, the sculpture, once a widespread reflection of how exhausted the world was, took on a new meaning. By default, it became a work of “art of war” – and being in the spotlight proved difficult for the team. “It’s a small part that has to be paid in blood,” Lanko said.

“We take all the attention because we understand that we are ‘speakers’ at the moment – ambassadors of our country and our culture,” she continued, explaining that she She hopes the conversation around the pavilion can refer to Ukrainian art more generally.

A message from the President

Further afield, in a building about a 30-minute walk from the main Biennale site, there is also an exhibition of works by Ukrainian artists from the past few weeks. It is a powerful reminder of the many creators who have been affected by the war, and another example of the determination and resilience of Ukrainian artists.

An earlier version of ‘Fountain of Exhacharge’ (1995) Credit: Courtesy of Pavlo Makov

One such artist, Lesia Khomenko, is performing a series of large-format portraits called “Max in the Army”, which she named after one of her subjects: her husband, Max, who attended the resistance in the army. Another work, “The Difficulties of Profanation II” by Nikkita Kadan, sees large fragments of bombs and rubble – collected from the Donbas in 2015 during Russia’s final assault on Ukraine, and later. from Kyiv in 2022 – hung on a frame.

Speaking via video at the exhibition’s opening event, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said, “Art can tell the world things that cannot be shared otherwise”, and urged the audience to support the land. country with art, words and their “influence”.

The curator of the exhibition, Björn Geldhof, staged the show in just four weeks. During a walk through space, he said, “Creating in wartime isn’t easy. But it’s one of the things we wanted to do was show the incredible resilience that artists have. contemporary Ukraine has been.”

The strength of this character was on full display at the Ukraine pavilion on opening day. A press conference to mark the launch began with a moment of silence among the Ukrainian people. And while the media and visitors continued to suggest that the team behind the installation were heroes, Makov and his managers brushed aside the pain by reminding everyone that the real heroes are those on the battlefield, in the hospital, and in besieged areas.

Pavlo Makov and his curatorial team (Lizaveta German, Maria Lanko and Borys Filonenko) with Kateryna Chueva, Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, and Ilya Zabolotnyi, head of the Ukraine Emergency Art Fund Credit: Pavilion courtesy of Ukraine, 2022 Venice Biennale

The team was also measured in the assessment of art’s ability to end conflict. “I always say that art is more a diagnosis than a medicine,” says Makov. “I’m not sure it can save the world, you know? But it can help save the world.”

Speaking a few weeks ago, Lanko expressed a similar view: “Art won’t stop the war right now, but it can prevent the next one,” she said.

For the Germans, the “Fountain of Exhaustion” is not a symbol of optimism, but she believes that getting it to Venice will “give hope” and show Ukraine is capable of coming out ahead. darkest period.

“Even if war is still around, we have the ability to build our future.”