From Ukraine to Venice: in an installation on water here is Kollina by Olexa Furdiyak

Scheduled for today, Friday, April 22, is the arrival in Venice of Kollina, a 2013 sculpture by Ukrainian artist Olexa Furdiyak, offered in a traveling installation on water. The presence of this work in the lagoon city was made possible by the Imago Mundi Foundation, which brought it to Italy from Ukraine at the beginning of April thanks to a collaboration with curator Solomia Savchuk, head of contemporary art at Mystetskyi Arsenal, one of Ukraine’s leading cultural institutions, which houses various artistic disciplines within itself.

Imago Mundi Foundation wanted to make this gesture in the knowledge that life, including the professional lives of artists and the world of culture, must be allowed to continue, as it does everywhere in the world, and as in fact continues with resilience every day in Ukraine. Bringing the voice of an artist to Venice through his work was a contribution strongly desired by the Foundation, which then decided to commit itself to making this journey possible, first by land, and now by water.

The sculpture, which is made of welded metal, measures four meters by three meters, and weighs nearly 300 kilos, will arrive aboard a boat in St. Mark’s Basin after skirting the Giardini and the Arsenale; it will then approach Punta delle Dogana, and then travel along the Grand Canal to the station, and then retrace the same route in reverse. The sculpture will start moving from the afternoon until sunset, making a few stops.

It was Solomia Savchuk who suggested Furdiyak’s highly symbolic work to the Imago Mundi Foundation: Kollina (“knee” in Ukrainian) recalls the pose in which honors were received, a solemn position that only a free man who pursues justice can assume. From May 6, the work will be on display in Treviso, at the Prison Galleries.

“Openness and determination,” says Olexa Furdiyak, “are inherent characteristics of free people. Because only if a person is aware of his freedom can he be open and purposeful. Independence and freedom are of primary importance for human existence.”

From Ukraine to Venice: in an installation on water here is Kollina by Olexa Furdiyak

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