In Florence the solo exhibition of Pavlo Makov, the artist representing Ukraine at the Venice Biennale

Cartavetra Gallery in Florence presents from Oct. 27 to Dec. 30, 2022 a solo exhibition dedicated to Pavlo Makov (St. Petersburg, 1958), an artist representingUkraine at the 59th Venice International Art Biennale with his Fountain of Exhaustion.

Entitled The Two Roses and curated by Borys Filonenko, the exhibition aims to simply and clearly bring us back to a reflection on the purpose of art, which is necessarily linked to life, to a vision that is as personal as it is collective of the human condition. Through metaphors and symbols that constitute his visual language, Makov reconstructs a narrative that moves within the conflicting web involving Russia and Ukraine from the most intimate perspective.

“The image of roses, which give the exhibition project its title, is concrete,” the artist declares. “My wife and I go to our house outside the city every October to cover the roses in our garden, thus preserving them from the cold, and in March, every year, we discover them again. We have been taking care of our roses for twenty years, and now our house, ten kilometers from the border, is occupied. Our garden, ruined, and our roses are dead.”

Pavlo Makov’s words are an invitation to a broader consideration of everyday life. The artist emphasizes a real experience, going beyond the frame of viral images that dot the media, he recounts a war that did not start three months ago, he recounts a private experience. The rose, such a simple element that becomes a metaphor for life, that human feeling from which art cannot and must not separate itself, lowering itself to a mere tool of political propaganda.

On the basis of this will, the exhibition itinerary takes shape, consisting of the artist’s most recent works, many of which were created right inside the gallery, which transforms itself by moving from a place of production to a point of observation by establishing a dialogue with the public, in search of a new look proposed by Filonenko.

For info: www.cartavetra.org

Hours: Wednesday through Saturday, 3:30 to 7 p.m.

Pictured is the artist in front of The Fountain of Exhaustion, the work representing Ukraine at the 59th Venice Biennale.

In Florence the solo exhibition of Pavlo Makov, the artist representing Ukraine at the Venice Biennale

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