Videocity visits The NewBridge Project throughout March and April with a series of films made after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, but before Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
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Videocity visits The NewBridge Project throughout March and April with a series of films made after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, but before Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Wednesday 1 March – Saturday 29 April
NewBridge Books is open 12pm – 5pm, Wednesday – Saturday
Curated by Polina Chizhova, Newcastle & Andrea Domesle, Basel. The exhibition is accompanied by fundraiser for Ukrainian artists.
The title of Videocity’s cycle “Eye/View” comes from the German word “Augenblick”, which translates as a “moment”. Taken individually, “Augen” means “eyes” and “Blick” means “gaze”. The play on words “Augen/Blick” (Eye/View) refers to both individual meanings, as well as the “moments” the two words co–create.
Whether by another’s gaze or an artificial lens, rarely a moment goes by uncaptured in today’s world. The visual information we receive profoundly shapes our worldviews yet is infallibly susceptible to our own subjective experiences and beliefs. Our understanding of sight and its relation to our beings has only been complicated by digital immediacy and the prevalence of technology. What was once a question of reality phrased in relation to not being seen, is now phrased in relation to not being documented, as being “seen” has taken on a completely new meaning in the wake of personal cameras, surveillance devices and digital media platforms. Technology has not only duplicated the realms of our existence, the physical and the digital, but it has also proliferated questions of consent and ethics. Most profoundly, it has left us wondering whether the consent to being susceptible to the “public eye” also extends to being subjected to CCTV cameras and other surveillance measures, and whether such surveillance measures are conscionable to begin with.
After the start of the war, Videocity’s annual curatorial concept of Eye/View acquired a new dimension: observing and being observed became situations that now affect everyone to an extraordinary degree. We made this threat more visible in the second part of the cycle. The video works by Sergey Bratkov, Copa & Sordes, Marina Dykukha, Olia Fedorova, Maksym Khodak, Mykola Ridnyi have proven to be a prediction of war and testify to a life in fear and danger. The gaze regimes that are revealed in the videos revolve around: following, monitoring, focusing, remembering and the unexpected breaking out of the blue.
Sergey Bratkov, Architectural Measurements, 2018 4:09 min., with sound, 16:9
“The short video was shot four years ago. My brother Yura, an architect, measures by steps the destroyed premises of a former children’s sanatorium in the village of Led in the suburbs of Kharkov, where he lives.
Today, my brother counts the explosions of bombs outside the window of his house. He practically does not move. He is sick. He is 75.” – Sergey Bratkov
Copa & Sordes , www.chernobyl-rose-hedge.net, since 2017
“The artist duo Copa & Sordes launched the “Chernobyl Rose Hedge” project in 2017. Their metaphorical idea: “A virtual network of roses will cover the destroyed Chernobyl power plant. By dropping roses on the surface of the power plant – symbolic of all present and future victims – their stems will intertwine into a strong braided shield of wishes and hope for a peaceful future.”
After the outbreak of the war, they designed a special edition – everyone who buys this edition contributes a metaphorical brick to the online peace memorial and at the same time supports Ukrainian artists.” – Andrea Domesle
Marina Dykukha, Big bro is fucked up watching you, 2014, 0:16 min., with sound
““Big bro is fucked up watching you” is a is a metaphor for the influence of big data and algorithm holders, as well as for the way they direct people’s behaviour or the course of events and how this can be reversed if people would define the system in which they would like to live together. The projection zone of the installation was a visual representation of the global scene of the relationship between individual and the system in which they live [the installation screen with a watching eye], and we observed the unhealthy system being hacked by the people who came together to protest and say “no” to those who chose to monopolise. Big bro is fucked up watching you works with the idea of renewal and game-changing paradigms between art and politics, the individual and the system by pushing the former towards a direct action, rethinking and reconsidering the two-way influence structure itself.” – Marina Dykukha
Olia Fedorova, Dry Fire, 2021, 0:50 min., with sound
“In archery “dry fire” means releasing a drawn bow without an arrow. This practice is dangerous, because the energy, instead of being absorbed by an arrow, is dissipated through the vibration of the bowstring and the bow limbs, which can lead to the significant structural damage to the bow and to the injury of an archer.” – Olia Fedorova
Maksym Khodak, Flags of Propaganda, 2018, Videocity edition 1 channel, looped, 3:00 min.
“At the heart of “Battleship Potemkin”, one of the most famous films in history, is the propaganda of the Bolsheviks. The climax of the film is the raising of a red flag above the deck of the battleship. In “Flags of Propaganda” I also colour the flags, with the only difference that instead of the colour of the Bolshevik flag, I use the colours of the most influential ideologies fought over in modern Ukrainian society.” – Maksym Khodak
Mykola Ridnyi, Seacoast, 2008, 1:00 min., looped 3 times, with sound
“This video work, shot on a Black Sea coast, shows a static horizon littered with the figures of fishermen. The calm surface of the image is interrupted at regular intervals by scenes of jellyfish splashing on the ground. The video conveys the impermanence and relativity of calm, how quickly and easily military aggression can escalate in the modern world. This work was created in response to the conflict between Georgia, Abkhazia and Russia, which took place 6 years before the invasion of Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea.” – Mykola Ridnyi
The NewBridge Project is accessible. You can find out more here, or feel free to contact us prior to visiting if you require additional information regarding access and facilities.
The NewBridge Project is supported by Arts Council England, Newcastle Culture Investment Fund, Newcastle University’s Institute for Creative Arts Practice and the North of Tyne Combined Authority.
