2020

537-1453-1935-2020 (we endure and pray)
intervention
#bruderschaft
Kyiv, Ukraine
2020

photo by Yevgen Nikiforov

  

︎︎︎ Briefly about the name. 537 — consecration of the new church; 1453 — converted into a mosque; 1935 — converted into a museum; 2020 — converted into a mosque.

Public statement on the situation with the converting Hagia Sophia into a mosque︎ in Turkey in the summer of 2020. The phrase "We endure and pray", which summed up the speech of Patriarch Bartholomew on September 6, was appropriated by me, printed on banners and hung on the walls of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv.

More about project ︎︎︎

#brudershaft: Ukrainian artists told about the importance of unity for Ukraine and Germany ︎︎︎

Poster of On the patriarch’s funeral show in The Naked Room
designed by 3Z Studio
2020

Statement dated January 6th, 2020
official statement
Fake Performance Festival
online
2020

scan of the original document

︎︎︎ The document declares an alternative state of affairs and rewrites the history around the active stage of events related to the establishment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The author publicly proclaimed his responsibility for puppeteering the process of creating the history of a new clerical structure in the Orthodox world.

The work featured in Fake Performance Festival 2020 curated by Stanislav Kholodnykh.

The statement consists of several paragraphs exampling the author's interventions in the course of events that took place in the fall 2018 and early winter 2019. Such interventions included altering spoken language (briefing speech), editing texts (Patriarchal and Synodal Tomos), adjusting gestures (in particular, those of Mr. Poroshenko).

Here you can find an English translation ︎︎︎

Dedicated to
request
ArtSvit gallery
Dnipro, Ukraine
2020

scan of the original document

︎︎︎ I felt this work was complete (as a single piece) while I was visiting the eparchial office of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine (UOC (MP)). Researching the conflict(-free) communication between government and church, I wanted to make an appointment with the eparchial secretary. There, in the lobby of the building, I saw a painting.

The next step was an attempt to officially obtain the painting in order to expose it in the gallery. I met with the eparchial secretary and wrote a letter to His Eminence Metropolitan Iriney. In the letter, I asked him to provide the painting for temporary exposition at the final exhibition of the artistic residence I participated in.

The name of the project refers to:
— the original work by Oleksandr & Natalia Miroshnychenko called ‘Dedicated to the opening of the building of the Orthodox Eparchy in Dniepropetrovsk’;
— practice of ktetorship, i.e. funding, favouring and supporting church;
— iconographic tradition of depicting politicians nearby clerical figures (even on icons);
— one of the literary meanings of the phrase ‘to be dedicated’ in Ukrainian language, where it closely corresponds with the phrase ‘to become holy’ (ref. ‘Clouds’ by Nechuy-Levytsky, ‘The confessor fox’ by I. Franko).

Here you can find an English translation ︎︎︎

Ivan Skoryna on exhibition in ArtSvit gallery, Dnipro, Ukraine for yourart ︎︎︎

Amina Akhmed Walk with artists for yourart ︎︎︎

Oleksandr Miroshnychenko and Natalia Miroshnychenko — "Dedicated to the opening of the building of the Orthodox Eparchy in Dniepropetrovsk"
oil on canvs
200x170 cm
2006

photo by author