Net Making

Vision of the project

The National Pavilion of Ukraine at the 60th Venice Biennale was curated and implemented by the public organisation Ukrainian Photography as the winner of the open contest organised by the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. Galeria Labirynt (Lublin, Poland), Open Eye Gallery (Liverpool, UK), and Ukrainian Institute were the core partners of Ukrainian Photography in developing the exhibition and the programme of related events in Venice in 2024.

Ukraine was represented by three artworks by leading Ukrainian contemporary artists: Katya Buchatska, Andrii Dostliev Lia Dostlieva, Daniil Revkovskyi, and Andriy Rachinskyi within the large-scale architectural structure. The project, entitled 'Net Making,' referred to the metaphor of weaving a camouflage net as a joint action, which simultaneously allowed and helped the emancipation of each participant. The exhibition presented the viewers with various shared experiences and different means of communicating them.

The project built upon socially engaged artistic and curatorial practices, bringing together various communities and artists to address the most relevant questions, such as identity construction, collaboration and joint action, and the mechanisms of communication. An essential condition of all three projects was the role of people and communities as co-authors and artists as facilitators who supported different voices and helped them manifest themselves in joint action.

The National Pavilion was designed to become a platform for sharing relevant messages about Ukraine at that time and looking into the future; it became a platform bringing together the expertise of leading artists with the voices of the Ukrainian people and communities. The exhibition project was strengthened by a public programme of events where invited cultural professionals discussed the core questions raised. La Biennale di Venezia was a major art exhibition happening every two years. Over 800,000 visitors attended it in 2022.

Meet the Key Partner

The main field of activity and professional interests of the Public Organisation Ukrainian Photography is the contemporary art of Ukraine, promoting its protection and development. One of the organization's main focuses is the organization of exhibitions and research projects about Ukrainian artists. Also, a significant vector in work is the research and systematization of oral and material archives related to the history of Ukrainian art and the fixation on changes in approaches and paradigms within the artistic process of Ukraine. 
In current conditions, one of the organization's critical tasks is the search for a high-quality representation of Ukrainian art abroad and the establishment of interaction between the Ukrainian and foreign cultural sectors."

Start Date: Feb. 1, 2024
End Date: Sept. 30, 2024