“Stages”

4.07.22 — 29.07.22.
From 4 to 29 June, Vienna hosted the Stages exhibition, which we created in collaboration with the Albert Art Gallery. The exposition was attended by two artists of Spilne Art – Elena Shtepura and Ksenia Datsyuk, as well as the famous Austrian artist Erika Navas.

After Russia started a full-scale war with Ukraine, two Spilne Art artists Elena Shtepura and Ksenia Datsuik had to leave Kyiv. Due to the constant stress and frequent relocations, the artists could not continue their creative activities. Natalia Tkachenko, the founder of the contemporary art platform Spilne Art, manage to find a temporary home for girls in Austria — artist Erika Navas opened the doors of her house and workshop and created a safe and comfortable environment in which Elena and Ksenia began to paint again. For three months, the artists worked together in the same studio, after seeing the result of their work, the curator and gallery owner Albert Rzeshutek offered to create an exposition marking the opening of the Albert Art Gallery.

The central theme of the exposition is about the stages of accepting the inevitable. With the help of the image of physicality, the artists convey the emotional states of a person through the movement or immobility of the body. We can see how the figures from the paintings go through the stages of denial, anger, compromise, and acceptance. “We always experience emotions with our whole body,” says Spilne Art artist Elena Shtepura. “The events that are happening now make our bodies react, in a strange, even ugly dance, without pleasure and plasticity — but it must be danced, because this is the only chance to cope.”

“Accepting oneself and reality is now the most difficult process for all Ukrainians,” says Spilne Art artist Ksenia Datsuik. Ideally, acceptance can lead to self-forgiveness. We must learn to forgive ourselves sometimes for our inaction because each of us is afraid that he does little action to win a war. The Stages exposition is about a way to yourself and acceptance of new selves”.