Kyiv Perennial 2024 Berlin

Kyiv Perennial opens in Berlin from February 23–25, 2024, symbolically marking the tenth anniversary of the Maidan Revolution and the tenth year of the Russian war against Ukraine. Kyiv Perennial is a continuation of the pan-European edition of the Kyiv Biennial 2023, which took place in several Ukrainian and EU cities. The Berlin edition is funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) in a cooperation. A multi-part exhibition and an extensive program of events span four venues: nGbK’s two locations on Alexanderplatz and in Hellersdorf, Between Bridges, and Prater Galerie.

Kyiv Perennial interprets the idea of the biennial as a collective, long-term endeavor against the backdrop of survival—politically, socially, and culturally: “Perennial” means “lasting”, “enduring”, or “persisting”. Through presenting artistic and discursive practices, Kyiv Perennial addresses the multi-layered realities of war.

Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has given rise to a new wave of investigative, research-based, and documentary approaches deployed by artists, activists, and journalists. Their works have amounted to a collection of evidence of war crimes reaching from the killing of civilians and the erasure of architectural and other cultural heritage to environmental destruction that will affect Ukrainians until long after the end of the war. Going beyond a mere reckoning with the past, the exhibition orients itself towards the future, seeking possible exit strategies from the current deadlock of war, authoritarianism, and colonialism.

A discursive program with weekly events accompanies the exhibition in February, March, and April. The presentations, panel discussions, and film screenings span a wide range of topics, including investigations into Russian war crimes, Russian imperialism, decolonization processes in Eastern Europe, displacement and refuge, the changing role of witnesses in war zones, the preservation of cultural heritage, and social, political and urban transformations in Ukrainian cities under attack.

Accompanying the exhibition and public program, a poster project draws attention to Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and contextualizes it as a war within and against Europe. Several artists were invited to create one poster each with the leading question: What will happen to Europe if the war against Ukraine continues for ten more years?

Artists: Anonymous, Zuzanna Czebatul, De Ne De, Dmytro Hreshko, Nikita Kadan, Leon Kahane, Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk, Yana Kononova, Daria Kozlova and Arwina Afsharnejad, The Reckoning Project, Vladyslav Riaboshtan, Mykola Ridnyi, Anna Scherbyna and Christina Werner, Anton Shebetko

Poster project with Pavel Brăila, Uliana Bychenkova, Experimental Jetset, Marina Naprushkina, Aliona Solomadina, Wolfgang Tillmans

Artistic Director: Vasyl Cherepanyn

Curatorial team: Jörg Heiser, Serge Klymko, Constanze Musterer, Viktor Neumann, Lena Prents, Can Mileva Rastovic, Wolfgang Tillmans, Shahin Zarinbal

Locations
nGbK am Alex
February 24–April 1, 2024

station urbaner kulturen/nGbK Hellersdorf
February 26–June 9, 2024

Between Bridges
February 25–May 4, 2024

Prater Galerie
Symposium: June 1, 2024

For more information on locations, opening hours and the public program please visit our website.

The project is a cooperation between the Visual Culture Research Center, neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst and the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation), together with Between Bridges and the communal Prater Galerie. The Kulturstiftung des Bundes is funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media).

The neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (nGbK) is funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Community.

In partnership with: Emergency Support Initiative, Documenting Ukraine Program at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) Vienna, Institute for East European Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, The Reckoning Project, Ukrainian Institute in Germany.