Swear to Tell the Truth
Vlad Yurashko
25.10 – 10.12.2017
The pop/off/art Gallery presents "Swear to Tell the Truth", an exhibition of the well-known Ukrainian artist Vlad Yurashko, the opening of which has been timed to coincide with the centenary of the October Revolution. "Swear to Tell the Truth" is a utopian project, dedicated to the art industry and its future. Vlad Yurashko creates his own artistic manifesto which predicts a new era in the development of culture.
For the artist, the world that we see and comprehend is inherently false, therefore in his project he insists on truth, which can be set off against reality. Yurashko creates, in the installation format, a multi-layered narrative made up out of objects, video, painting and text. As regards understanding the post-industrial era, questions that in the past used to concern Walter Benjamin – questions about the politicization of Art, its authenticity and impact on society are brought to the fore by the artist. Yurashko's predictions relate to the transformation of works of art in the context of the development of innovative technologies, which will make it possible to transmit the thoughts of sentient beings directly. Deeply reflecting on the media nature of the image, the artist poses the questions: will painting exist in a hundred years; will the personal unconscious become a new, perfect and pure object of Art?
In the exhibition "Swear to Tell the Truth" Yurashko touches on both the historical tenets of the Russian Revolution and today's ethnic conflicts. Turning to the practice of the Avant-garde of a hundred years ago, he puts forward the idea of a possible revolution in Art, but at the same time takes into account its inevitable defeat. Using striking visual images, the artist points to the complex structure of modern life and to the awkward, subordinate position in it of both the viewer and the author. His visual artworks are supplemented by his own multi-layered texts, which can be perceived as either a commentary to the works or as manifestations of new art, or as the fruits of literary fiction.
Vlad Yurashko was born in 1970 in Poltava (Ukrainian SSR); in 2002 he graduated from the Kharkov State Academy of Design and Arts. The exhibition "Swear to Tell the Truth" is his fourth solo project in the pop/off/art Gallery. The artist’s solo exhibitions have been held in a number of leading galleries and contemporary art foundations in Russia, the Ukraine and Europe. Yurashko is a participant of the Main Project of the 5th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2013); the 3rd Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art (2015) and the Kiev Biennale "Month of photography" (2003, 2005); as well as dozens of international exhibitions. The artist's works are included in private collections in Russia, the Ukraine, the USA, Germany, Austria and other countries. Vlad Yurashko works in Moscow, Banská Bystrica (Slovakia) and Poltava (the Ukraine).
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