Naomi Uman. Ukrainian Time Machine

http://www.hallwalls.org/media-arts/4783.html


Former HARP artist Naomi Uman returns to Hallwalls from Eastern Europe. Hoping to experience what it is like to be an immigrant, the filmmaker moved to the Ukraine shortly after her 2005 residency—a reverse journey taken by her great-grandparents in 1906. She will show four 16mm films from the Ukrainian Time Machine series that combine personal, experimental and non-fiction approaches to capturing life in the town of Uman, where people live as it were 100 years ago.

Kalendar
11 minutes, color, silent, sixteen millimeter film, 2008
This ten minute, silent, color film which depicts the meaning of the months of the year in the Ukrainian language. Each month is presented and followed with a title card which gives the name of the month in Ukrainian Cyrillic, the meaning of that name in italics and the name of the month in English. This film speaks to the concept of language acquisition as you are presented the word for the month, but you are not given a transliteration. If you are unable to read the letters, you can not know how the word will sound. This film, in its silence, represents the door that can be opened when a language is learned, but that remains closed until that time.


Unnamed Film
55 minutes, color, 16 millimeter film, 2008
This project is the result of the filmmaker's attempt to investigate issues of immigration by becoming an immigrant herself. Naomi Uman returned to the land her great grandparents left in 1906. She moved to Ukraine, without speaking the language or knowing anyone. She moved near the city of Uman, to a small rural village where people live as they did 100 years ago.

On This Day
5 minutes, color, sound, 16 millimeter film, 2008
This film tells the true story of one day in the life of the filmmaker.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Naomi Uman is a visual artist. She works in a variety of media and formats. Her work addresses themes of work, geography, immigration, language and love. She has recently completed a series of films, all shot in a rural Ukrainian village, near the city of Uman. She has worked in the United States, Mexico and is now living in Ukraine where, accompanied by her small dog, continues making films, planting vegetables and flowers and making paintings of animals.

contemporary art in museum project

Contemporary Histories: The 2009 International Competition for Curatorship in Ukraine
The Kharkiv-based artists’ collective SOSka proposed an exhibition titled “A New History” for the Kharkiv Art Museum. It included works by artists from Ukraine, Russia, Slovakia, Romania and Sweden; some pieces had been shown previously in international exhibitions such as Manifesta 7 and Art Moscow. Adopting a structure similar to curator Ekaterina Degot’s exhibition “Thinking Realism” in the State Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow (2007), the curators paired contemporary artworks (mostly video) with works from the permanent collection in order to raise questions and introduce the possibility for new readings. In Kharkiv, the contemporary art objects were juxtaposed with historical paintings and sculptures, creating a visual and aural dissonance that was perceived by museum administrators as a conflict, rather than as a dialogue as the curators had intended.

“A New History” was scheduled for five days, but it was abruptly closed by order of the museum director, Valentina Myzgina, the day after the opening. In an official letter of explanation sent to the EIDOS foundation president two weeks later, Myzgina cited several reasons for shutting down the exhibition. These included concerns that video artworks were installed so close to museum paintings that they interfered with viewing the paintings. Some video works broadcast sound into the gallery rather than through headphones, and they contained offensive language. David Ter-Oganyan’s installation “Girl in Underwear,” which was not discussed and approved during initial negotiations between the curators and museum staff, consisted of articles of clothing scattered in the middle of a corridor. Judging this to be a disruption of museum circulation and violation of fire safety norms, the director personally dismantled the piece at the exhibition opening.

not very interesting, but informative

A Short Guide to Contemporary Art in Ukraine ("Short Guide Series")

Articles

Larissa Babij (Kyiv)

Thursday, 23 July 2009 17:19

ARTMargins begins a series of concise introductions to the developing art scenes of East-Central Europe. Last May an exhibition titled Pohlyady (Views) that highlighted the confluence of art and politics was organized by HudRada (Arts Council) at the Center for Contemporary Art in Kyiv. HudRada is a group of Ukrainian artists, architects, translators and political activists; many members of the Ukrainian contemporary art community participate in its internet-based discourse. HudRada has wide-ranging aims, which include self-education through communication as well as creating exhibitions and other consciousness-raising events. Without the hierarchical management of a single curator, the members of HudRada collaborated on the development of Pohlyady mostly through email correspondence. Poster-size text excerpts from their discussions hung on the gallery walls amongst the artworks. Lectures, roundtables and guided tours enhanced the visitors’ experience, adding an interpretive dimension and creating a setting for those interested in Ukrainian contemporary art to meet and exchange ideas. By encouraging critical discourse, the group is working to slowly transform the Ukrainian art scene.