Gutgabe

For my semester project „Tomorrow we will explain“ in Dresden, developed in collaboration with Kunsthaus Dresden - Städtische Galerie für Gegenwartskunst and Rosenwerk, I installed banner at Augustusbrücke that originally stated „Gutgabe und Böse“ („Добро і зло“ - „Good and evil“ in my language). „Gutgabe“ is the word that was invented in a process of interviewing of Germans about meaning of „gut“ and „das Gute/die Güte“ that transfers more precisely the meaning of „добро“ that in my language (Ukrainian and Russian) carries the idea of selfless giving, either help or money to those, who need it. The project started with a simple problem in translation, when variety of adjectives in my language like „добрий, хороший, якісний“ are appeared to have translation of one German word „gut“, meaning of which vary depending on context. This difference becomes really interesting in a situation of „refugee crisis“ and arising skepticism around capitalism, because it reveals how differently borders between economic and moral, material and spiritual are defined in different cultures.

At the night after installation of the banner in Dresden someone cut out and took away the word "Böse" and the work received new interpretations and dimensions. This dialog with a stranger that occurred in public space created important alternative to expansion of advertising that obviously took place at the banks of Elbe river and ruins aesthetics of landscape, but not only.

There was a time, when city center was a symbolic place for public gatherings and events, a place of public dialog and direct democracy. Today, however, city center is occupied by advertising, dominance of which discards other notions of a place, penetrating citizen with endless messages that produce desire.

Dialog that occur in Dresden prolongs my interest in capitalization of public space and situations, in which voice of citizens breaks through existing monopoly, turning monologue into a dialog. In 2013-2014 I documented Euromaidan events that occupied center of Kyiv. The opposition between citizen and officials took place at the background of huge advertising banners, light-boxes, showcases of expensive boutiques and restaurants that permanently occupied city center.