Mihailo Rashkovetsky
In the beginning of 2003, Mr. Pinchuk and Mr. Gelman gathered about three-dozen artists, art critics, curators and gallery people in Kiev, to consult on how to make The Museum of Contemporary art for Ukraine. I was invited as well, but I was sitting there as quiet as a mouse, because at that time I had been working for two years with the History Museum of Odessa’s Jewish community, and not with contemporary art. I did not even mention anything concerning the title, although I would have preferred “The Ukraine Museum of Contemporary Art”, as long as it was indeed ‘for Ukraine’. I stood up only once, when Nicolas Bourriaud started to discuss in an animated fashion the intention of some advisors to give a special attention to the future collection of the Museum to Ukrainian artists. Bourriaud felt indignation and began to warn everyone with the dangers of ‘ghetto-izing’ Ukrainian art, if such a path of collecting the ‘local’ was pursued. I then asked the famous French curator how many contemporary art museums there were in France? “About 200, but what does it have to do with France?” Bourriaud, most likely, knows more than I do about contemporary art, but, what does he know about the ghetto? And what does Sydor-Gibelinda know about the ghetto, who interpreted it as a place “where its inhabitants live freely”. No, the ghetto is bad, but in certain circumstances it provides the opportunity to survive. Ukraine did not have any museum of contemporary art. And one should not bother them self with the problems of the excessive hermiticity of Ukrainian contemporary art, because, by nature, it cannot avoid being inter-contextual. If contemporary art comes out of a process of relevant international pollilog - it is no more contemporary art. Support for this process requires the existence and development of institutional networks: museums, galleries, centers, journals, etc. During almost 10 years, starting from the late 80-ies Odessa made considerable efforts creating such institutions. These were the Odessa branch of the Kravchuk art promotion foundation, CCA ‘Tirs’, association “New art” CCA Soros in Odessa, “New space” foundation, “Level 14 league” and several others. Such initiatives existed not virtually: in complex conditions and for ridiculous money there had been made about one hundred of projects - exhibitions, congresses, debates, performances, festivals. During 10 years there were special courses on contemporary art issues in the Art museum, within the Cultural studies department in polytechnic university and philosophy department of the state university. But not only that! In general the critique of the Odessa experiment in mass media (although not always professional and not complimentary at all) took second place after the discussion around creation of the ‘free economic zone’ for Odessa. The efforts were primarily directed at creation of local infrastructure. And it was not only the consequence to stop the process of cultural emigration traditional for Odessa since the beginning of the 20th century. Being in the predicament ‘after modernism’ we stressed the peculiar aesthetic value of the local context and local specificity. Practical phenomena provided the opportunity to prove the principal differences of the contemporary Ukrainian art (Kiev, Odessa, Lviv) from Moscow art, and the peculiar mythology of Odessa itself allowed to play precisely Odessa’s patience. Not only the lack of money and contemporary exhibition spaces but the painting tradition proper to Odessa’s underground of the 1960-1970 pushed the exhibitions inside the stylish premises of ruined theaters, former palaces and burnt-out discos. As in Frankenstein’s cabinet, there had been phantom-operas of contemporary art in Odessa, here and inside, where the elements of postindustrial communications coexist with the elements of industrial life or the industrial mentality. Only such a local schizophrenia, or applying the medical terminology, ‘Kandinsky syndrome’, allowed to unite international context of the contemporary art with the local ‘arts’ of facts. But this situation had to be over. Odessa’s ‘Titanic’ of contemporary art had to sink right after beginning its journey, the same way Odessa’s merchant marine (one of the biggest in the world) disappeared. Corporeity and vitality, have been for such a long time, indexes for Odessa’s cultural discourse, implemented in a highly active way by O. Roytburd, more a Prometheus than a Messiah of Odessa’s contemporary art did not work in the new conditions when the locality became be associated to beggary - everyday and mental. Supermarket standard and the space of the networks pushed towards cutting off the roots, towards nomad and rhizomatic thinking, towards the attempts to adapt oneself e.g. to become dissolved in the international context, perceived in the warm Odessa as the cold academy. Nowadays the naive revolutionary pathos of the CA has gone; its creative resources are almost out ÖCA without prophets - without illusions, CA - without art. It mechanically attacks its proper borders. No aim, no mainstream and everything is allowed. Everything is permitted, according to the rules from above. During its short history contemporary art took a heavy burden of newly sacred traditions, accumulated history, created idols, connected itself to the duties of the routine innovation, creative austerity reaching as far as mortification of the flesh, and nowadays it keeps on processing all this methodological second-hand to the simulacrums of the creative gestures. These lines had been written by O. Roytburd shortly before his departure from Odessa. One man is a wolf to an other. Push the falling - these were the manifestos before the second millennium its young opponents: for our curatorial group it was clear that the model of artistic projects cannot be described through its attitude towards historical routes, national peculiarities, ideological community to formal integrity and originality. Previous generations of Ukrainian artists, after learning new market technologies came down a peg, behaving as spermatozoids, locked inside a condom. Regional theorists are still analyzing these technologies with the look of people evaporating cocaine out of coca-cola. Curators and artists of the new generation are out of time for such ‘games’. As far as the local cultural tradition is not well articulated by knowledge, we did not take this issue into consideration. Still we preferred to proceed from the idea of the new Ukrainian contemporary art and quickly respond with tactics against the universal cultural irritants of the reality. Providing the example of the ‘new British art’ curators promised: we are brave to suppose that tendencies shown in the ‘Found Stuff’ would be viable and will define the face of the Ukrainian art in the next decade. Yes. Courage takes the cities. And stupidity surrenders them. The activity of Odessa CAA that was ‘promoted’ in its status up to ‘Institute of contemporary art’ existed only by the year 2001. All three new leaders now work with a certain success out of the limits of the contemporary art. Good luck to all of them - it is not their fault that Odessa of the current 21st Century, does not have anything called contemporary art, and Ukrainian contemporary art keeps on existing faceless, not referring to a body. But, who is guilty? What to do? Where are we going? May be the answers to these questions we will get from the new project ‘Center for Context and Communication Kiev’. Its curators kindly offered to me participate in it by means of writing this text, the first part of which you are reading now. May be in order to make it easier for me I was offered the article’s title and the ‘tags’. I used the offered title, and used as tags the titles for Odessa’s most important artistic projects described in Portfolio. Odessa’s art of the 90-s. Collected texts. Those who find all these titles can get a special reward from me sending answer to the address migdal_museum@odessa.net But I do not play this game with Oleksandr Solovyov, because he read this book for sure the same way he reads all that moves and comes out.