Everyday records - art over borders

The young artist from Kharkov is willing to push the boundaries of contemporary art with her provocative and naturalistic work. This attitude has brought her several exhibitions in whole Ukraine and abroad, moreover, a nomination for the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2011. Alina Kleytman, a renown Ukrainian artist has recently been on a residency stay in Košice.

Crossing borders

Her residency was implemented within the K.A.I.R. project (Košice Artist in Residence) in the frame of the TANDEM program, which is organized by the european culture foundation and the MitOst organization. TANDEM brings cultural organizations, artists and cultural managers from the EU countries together with new partners in Ukraine, Moldova or Turkey. K.A.I.R. is cooperating with the City Art Gallery in Kharkov, the second largest city in Ukraine, to send Košice-based artists to Ukraine and vice versa.

There are special areas of interest of the worldwide K.A.I.R. project and the area east of the Slovak Schengen border and Ukraine is one of them. The project stresses out cross-Schengen cooperation between countries. It wants to provide help for open-minded artists that are disadvantaged by the bureaucracy and politics.

A challenge…

The beginning of Alina’s residency was not an easy start. There was a certain language barrier, in addition with the new social and work environment, it was a challenge to participate on the residency. But as challenging the residency can be, it was a great experience for her which also reflected on her work. As Alina said herself:  “These photos are reflecting changes in my life, as well as changing my attitude to it.”

Pictures taken during her stay were inspired by her everyday life, thus the name of the exposition Everyday records. One can sense her feelings not only from the pictures, but also from the messages that are explaining her current state of mind.

The exposition is open for public in Tabačka - a local center of alternative culture and arts.