After the end of the exhibition part at nGbK am Alex, Kyiv Perennial is still on view at station urbaner kulturen/nGbK Hellersdorf and Between Bridges. The public program continues at all locations throughout April. Kyiv Perennial is a continuation of the pan-European edition of the Kyiv Biennial 2023.

Kyiv Perennial interprets the idea of the biennial as a collective, long-term endeavor against the backdrop of survival – politically, socially, and culturally: “Perennial” means “lasting”, “enduring”, or “persisting”. Through presenting artistic and discursive practices, Kyiv Perennial addresses the multi-layered realities of war. The contributions engage and examine a wide-ranging spectrum of urgent themes, including war trauma, flight and displacement, the social and political polarization in European societies, ecological destruction caused by military conflict, and decolonial tendencies in contemporary Eastern European culture and politics.

Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has given rise to a new wave of investigative, research-based, and documentary approaches deployed by artists, activists, and journalists. Their works have amounted to a collection of evidence of war crimes that reach from the killing of civilians and the erasure of architectural and other cultural heritage to environmental destruction that will affect Ukrainians until long after the end of the war. In addition to presenting these, Kyiv Perennial will put back into focus the Russian invasion of the Donbas region, the history of the Crimean Tatars, and German war crimes on Ukrainian soil during World War II. Going beyond a mere reckoning with the past, the exhibition orients itself towards the future, seeking possible exit strategies from the current deadlock of war, authoritarianism, and colonialism.

The Berlin edition of the Kyiv Biennial commences with a three-day opening weekend: On February 23, the Kyiv Perennial opens at nGbK am Alex, two further openings follow at Between Bridges and station urbaner kulturen/nGbK Hellersdorf on February 24 and 25. On June 1, Prater Galerie organizes the symposium “What’s Left of the Friendship of Nations?”.

Artists: Anonymous, Zuzanna Czebatul, De Ne De, Dmytro Hreshko, Nikita Kadan, Leon Kahane, Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk, Yana Kononova, Daria Kozlova and Arwina Afsharnejad, The Reckoning Project, Vladyslav Riaboshtan, Mykola Ridnyi, Anna Scherbyna and Christina Werner, Anton Shebetko

Poster project with Pavel Brăila, Uliana Bychenkova, Experimental Jetset, Marina Naprushkina, Aliona Solomadina, Wolfgang Tillmans

Artistic Director: Vasyl Cherepanyn

Curatorial team: Jörg Heiser, Serge Klymko, Constanze Musterer, Viktor Neumann, Lena Prents, Can Mileva Rastovic, Wolfgang Tillmans, Shahin Zarinbal

Locations

nGbK am Alex
Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 11/13, 10178 Berlin
Feb 24–Apr 1, 2024
Opening: Feb 23, 2024 
Opening hours: Tue–Sun 12–6 pm, Fri 12–8 pm

station urbaner kulturen/nGbK Hellersdorf
Auerbacher Ring 41, 12619 Berlin
Feb 26–Jun 9, 2024
Opening: Feb 25, 2024
Opening hours: Thu and Sat 3–7 pm

Between Bridges
Adalbertstraße 43, 10179 Berlin
Feb 25–May 4, 2024
Opening: Feb 24, 2024
Opening hours: Wed–Sat 12–6 pm

Prater Galerie
Loacations and dates will be announced shortly
Symposium: Jun 1, 2024

The project is a cooperation between the Visual Culture Research Center, neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst and the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation), together with Between Bridges and the communal Prater Galerie. The Kulturstiftung des Bundes is funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media).

In partnership with: Emergency Support Initiative, Documenting Ukraine Program at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) Vienna, Institute for East European Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, The Reckoning Project, Ukrainian Institute in Germany.