YURIY SOLOMKO
Born in 1962 in Crimea. Graduated from the Krasnodar Art College and the Department of Monumental Art of Kyiv State Institute of Arts. Lives and works in Kyiv. Was a member of the Kyiv-based Paris Commune art group (1990–1994). Began his project Cartography in 1991. Selected exhibitions: ParСommune. Place. Community. Phenomenon (2016, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv); Our People (2016, Lavra Gallery, Kyiv); Contemporary Cossack (2015, Bunsen Goetz Galerie, Nuremberg, Germany); Premonition: Ukrainian Art Now (2014, Saatchi Gallery, London); Terrain Orientation (2013, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv); Myth: Ukrainian Baroque (2012, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv); 20 Years of Presence (2011, Modern Art Research Institute, Kyiv); Ukrainian New Wave (2009, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv); Over the Wall (2009, Art Next Gallery, New York); G8 (2008, Tsekh Gallery, Kyiv); Ukrainian Painting (2008, White Box Gallery, New York); Regeneration (2003, Guelman Gallery, Kyiv); Art Against Geography (2001, Museum of Russian Art, St. Petersburg, Russia); The First Ukrainian Project (2001, 49 th Biennale of Contemporary Art, Venice); Intervals (2000, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv / Henie–Onstad Kunstsentre, Hovikodden, Oslo); Cartographers (1998, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb / Umetnostna Gallery, Maribor, Slovenia / Mucsarnok, Budapest / Zamek Ujazdovski, Warsaw); Visual Art (1996, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv); Borders (1996, Spacelab Gallery, Cleveland, USA); Hot Cool Orientation (1994, Szuper Gallery, Munich, Germany); Group-90 (1993, Palais Palffy, Vienna); Beginning (1992, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv).
GEOGRAPHY, POLITICS, CULTURE. YURIY SOLOMKO’S “ART ON MAPS” There’s an interesting story about how you first turned to geographic maps as an art object… Yes, it happened in Crimea in 1991, right before the collapse of the Soviet Union. I walked into this almost empty bookshop that sold nothing but old political world maps. I decided to use them in art. This is how my experiment with maps began… and in two months’ time, the USSR was gone.
I think each country has its own mission in the world, and although the mission might change over time, its place in space does not change. We cannot move our country from one section of the map to the other. Its geographical position largely informs its historic fate. Ukraine lies in the European part of the Eurasia, but civilization-wise, it is a battleground of the East and the West. The borders of the battleground are blurred and undefined, and they are not limited to Ukraine alone. The battle rages not only in Ukraine but also in, say, Turkey, where the bridge across the Bosporus connects the European and Asian parts of Istanbul. The former Yugoslavian countries defined the border between the Ottoman Empire and the Austria-Hungary. Poland, which blinked in and out of European maps, the Baltic countries and Russia, which has the geographical border between Europe and Asia, are also territories of the ancient battle between the East and the West. I should note that the East had often influenced Ukrainian history (suffice to mention Asian nomads, the Russian Empire or the USSR), only to retreat from the Western forces. This territory was initially controlled by Vikings, and later belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Austria-Hungary. In the days of yore, Ukraine existed as an idea, as a dream about sovereignty and independence. My recent works (Labyrinth of 2001, The Last Barricade of 2003, The Roads of Ukraine of 2009) explored the fact that Ukrainian territory seems historically “ambiguous,” now shrinking, now expanding…
Walk, digital print, oil on canvas, 80 x 100 cm, 2015
Well, the story demonstrates that artists and art have the power of premonition. Some say that all illusions, ideas and global projects already exist in art. You continued to work with maps throughout these 25 years. They became your calling card. Do they still have potential for you? Yes, absolutely. The world remains as tumultuous as it ever was, and humanity is stirred by ever new geopolitical projects. Maps force me to engage with space, culture and history as they closely intertwine. My “creative vector” has somewhat changed, however. In the 1990s, I was interested in world maps, whereas now I prefer maps of Ukraine, exploring its place on the Eurasian continent, its ties to the East and West… You once said in an interview that it is hard to find a generalized metaphor for Ukraine: it is too diverse and internally contradictory. Do you still think so?
Our Two-Headed Eagle, paper on fibreboard, lithography, acrylic, 67 x 97,5 cm, 2016 288