Join us on Friday, 13 October for a lunchtime artist talk with Mykola Ridnyi in conversation with Prof Susanne Strätling, moderated by Dr Maria Chehonadskih. The speakers will discuss Ridnyi’s artistic practice, his new exhibition The Battle Over Mazepa on view at Pushkin House, as well as those cultural complexities that we need to address regarding shared histories during the Russian war in Ukraine.
Ridnyi is one of the leading artists and conceptual filmmakers in Ukraine who has significantly contributed to the development of the cultural scene from the mid-2000s up until today. In his works he explores the ways in which ideologies evolve, function and conflict through various identities and media representations, how memories and history are preserved and affect social structures, and how mechanisms of vision condition our understanding of political reality.
In his new work commissioned by Pushkin House and John Hansard Gallery, Ridnyi focuses on the historical figure of Ivan Mazepa (1639–1709) and his depictions in different cultural traditions, including Ukrainian, Russian and British. By inviting contemporary rap and spoken-word performers to respond to historic texts, the artist challenges the audience to reflect on the urgency of political messages and to get involved with the ethical complexities of any historical and political narratives.
Throughout his work on the project the artist have been consulting with Professor Susanne Strätling, a leading authority on comparative literature with a focus on Slavic literatures. Ridnyi, Strätling and Chehonadskih will discuss the evolution of the artist's creative approaches, the political significance of cultural knowledge at the time of active military action, and the visions of solidarity in a polarised world. They will reflect on the public fatigue of the general European audience with images of the war, the saturation of media channels with violence and trauma, and the creative reaction to countering Russian imperialism and Ukrainian fight for freedom and security.
About the speakers
Dr Maria Chehonadskih is a lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London. She received a PhD in Philosophy from the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Kingston University. Her forthcoming book Alexander Bogdanov and the Politics of Knowledge After the October Revolution will be published in December 2023 by Palgrave Macmillan.
Mykola Ridnyi is an artist, filmmaker and curator. He studied at the National Academy of Design and Art in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and was already actively involved in art collectives and artist-run spaces before graduating in 2008. Ridnyi’s curatorial project Armed and Dangerous (2017–2021) led him to launch a platform for Ukrainian filmmakers. In 2022–23, he curated several Ukrainian film and video art screening programs at DAAD Galerie, Berlin; MAXXI, Rome; Museum Folkwang, Essen; and the National Gallery, Sofia. His installations, photographs and films have been shown at a number of institutions and festivals, including the Albertinum in Dresden, Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Bonniers Konsthall in Stockholm, Transmediale, the 56th Venice Biennale and others. He is currently a fellow of the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe’s Artistic Research Grant Program.
Prof Susanne Strätling is Professor of Eastern-European Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. She teaches comparative literature with a special focus on East European literatures. Her research spans from Baroque aesthetics to contemporary media with a special focus on the poetics of the Russian avant-garde. Her latest book is The Hand at Work: The Poetics of Poiesis in the Russian Avant-Garde (Academic Studies Press, 2021).