OLENA KAYINSKA

Art residency “Limits of openness...  Limits of frankness…”

Curator – Olena Kayinska

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The boundaries of the residency were blurry. It was an open residency, and all interested could approach and look at the working artists, speak with them, ask questions. Constant communication with the local community encouraged the artists to fully and completely dive into the context and go with the flow. But, at the same time, such openness was quite challenging. Was it comfortable for artists to work in front of everyone? Did they need to protect their borders? Is it possible to reveal the innermost, when somebody is witnessing? ​

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We were reflecting a lot. On the borders, limits, frames. There has always been a differentiation in human society. In ancient times people placed a stone on the border, which served as a mark where one piece of land ends and the other one begins. The threshold serves as the border of the house. No one can come in without permission. There are established frameworks of communication between people. We don’t ask personal questions to strangers.

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Every participant of the residency was looking for their key, which would open the box with the answers to questions about the limits and borders. And we’ve found them. ​

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Emotions became my key. The inner world, filled with joy and unimaginable pain. The joy, which flies to the sky like a feather, and a feather, closed in a glass ball above the sea. A human being accommodates everything. A human being is alive. А human being holds a stone and an alive beating heart is behind it.