Ukraine is probably the least peripheral borderland in today’s world. The borderland cliché – worthy or not – commonly arises when discussing the country’s multi-ethnic composition, strategic importance, or historic provenance.
The borderland explored at London’s GRAD (Gallery of Russian Art and Design) is a more fruitful fault line – the one between art and politics. Bringing together emerging and established artists from Russia and Ukraine, the 'Borderlands' exhibition explores the fluid boundaries between art, activism, and action – whether in Kyiv or Moscow.
The focus of 'Borderlands' is a work called Untitled, a striking brick-wall silhouette map of Ukraine, blackened by fire on one side and plastered with fading Soviet-era wallpaper on the other. A 2014 work by Kyiv-based Zhanna Kadyrova, the precarious nature of the construct reflects its times. Kadyrova had originally intended to use a piece of masonry from the very epicentre of 2014 – Kyiv’s Maidan.
