CUTOUT COLLAGE FESTIVAL: Kyiv hosts contemporary collage festival

CUTOUT COLLAGE FESTIVAL KYIV-PARIS 2023 is open to the public again. This year it is located in two art venues - in Kyiv and Paris. And while the Ukrainian capital has already hosted the festival in 2021, the French capital will familiarise guests with interesting examples of works by Ukrainian collage artists for the first time.

This is a young Festival, which, according to its authors, will grow into a permanent and large-scale one. It was opened in 2021. Then its authors were: art therapist, collage art historian and multidisciplinary artist Annette Sagal, collage artist, experimenter, author of therapeutic masterclasses Katya Syta and art manager, curator, and painting teacher Olga Syta. The main theme of the last festival was the phrase: "Art does not last forever!".

More than 40 artists from all over Ukraine, as well as from Poland, Great Britain, the USA, Spain, Portugal and other countries presented their works at the first collage festival. The programme also included lectures, workshops and film screenings of paintings about the art of collage.

In 2022 there was a forced pause.

However, this year CUTOUT COLLAGE FESTIVAL has returned with even greater scope: only at the Kyiv location of the festival - in the Centre of Contemporary Art M17 the works of almost 100 collage artists are presented.

The venue for the Contemporary Collage Festival in Paris was the young gallery Le Bonheur Est Dans L'Instant, founded in 2019 as a place to support young artists and their experiments. The collage artists' works have been shown there since the 8th of September.

The curator and founder of Le Bonheur Est Dans L'Instant, Xavier Gras, said that the main idea of the show was the struggle of the Ukrainian people for their independence.

I wanted to contribute to the struggle by inviting Ukrainian artists to share their work. As viewers who are at peace, we will see works directly created by artists who are at war: suffering from it, feeling its brutality individually and collectively, - he said.

The second location, the M17 Centre for Contemporary Art in Kyiv, opened on 15 September and will be open until 29 October. The exhibition is interactive: guests can join in the creation of a common collage, touch hares, flip through sketchbooks, immerse themselves in textile installations, etc.

The same name for this year's Festival has been chosen for the two venues - Freedom. The curators encourage artists and visitors to reflect on the nature of freedom, its dimensions and sensations.

Since 2015, a number of libertarian non-governmental organisations - the American think tank Cato Institute, the Canadian centre Fraser Institute and the German Friedrich Naumann Foundation - have been conducting global research on social, political and economic issues and ranking the world's countries according to the Human Freedom Index This index is calculated by assessing a wide range of indicators that represent the level of human freedom in the main areas of life, but in reality, it is not only the level of human freedom in the main areas of life, but also the level of freedom of the individual Is it really about freedom? - the curators ask themselves.

They offer the visitors of the Festival to answer the questions themselves: How has Ukraine moved in the Freedom Index ranking in recent years? How has the war affected the sense of freedom within the country and in comparison to others? How do Ukrainians feel freedom wherever they are?

The question of freedom in the modern world, which we artists and female artists feel especially acute now, pushes us to a new search for the root causes. And we use collage, which we see as one of the most progressive and unlimitised art movements, as our main tool," the curators explain.

A total of 100 collage masters will take part in the second CUTOUT COLLAGE FESTIVAL. These are invited Ukrainian and international artists, French artists, residents of CUTOUT COLLAGE STUDIO and CUTOUT LOVERS community, as well as open-call winners.

Ukrainian artists include Alexandra Chichkan, Tiberius Silvashi, Alexey Kondakov, and international: Maite Jane, Rebecca Elisegui, and Morgan Jesse Lappin. Each is inimitable in their style and their work is a must-see.

CUTOUT COLLAGE FESTIVAL - at the Centre of Contemporary Art M17, located at 102-104 Antonovicha Street, Kyiv.

The exhibition is waiting for you until 29 October.
Opening hours: Tues-Fri 11-20:00 (Fri day off).
Ticket: 100 UAH/privilege 50 UAH.

Learn more about the CUTOUT art project on the website: https://www.cutoutfestival.com/

A slightly smaller number of collage masters gathered at the international festival UA ART MUST GO ON, which took place at the beginning of the month in Kyiv.

The names of three artists who received honourable diplomas for prizes in the collage nomination became known to us.

• Valentina and Valeria Knyazeva - 1st place,
• Angelina Petrova - 2nd place,
• Olena Hrynevych - 3rd place.

All works are very expressive and encourage the viewer to reflection.

We wish all Ukrainian artists to create art and create eloquent art messages of contemporary art.