The spatial installation Heaven & Hell is not just a physical representation but a metaphor for the complexities of how societies engage with history during periods of disruption and discontinuity. Located within the National Art Museum of Ukraine (NAMU), the work evokes a sense of ‘ungroundedness’ (to use an electrotechnical analogy). It mirrors the disorientation and loss of place experienced in the museum. This becomes a metaphor for the broader human experience.
For this spatial installation, we meticulously replicated the gallery ceiling on the floor, inverting the relationship between up and down. This creates a mirage-like scenario that invites viewers to physically experience the profound sensation of being lost between up and down or heaven and hell. The depth of this experience, a profound disorientation, is particularly emblematic of postcolonial societies that have been robbed of their foundational past, inviting the audience to deeply feel the societal disorientation depicted in the art.
The museum setting becomes a powerful symbolic context for this unsettled exploration. Conservation efforts inherently strive to bridge political discontinuities. In stark contrast, the social sculpture Blinstrom (in English idle current) vividly showcases the ongoing struggle to interpret the museum’s collection (Spezfond). This process, fraught with tensions between preservation and loss, conservation and destruction, and assertion and reinterpretation, reflects museums’ significant cultural policy challenges. At this intersection between conflicting narratives, Heaven & Hell and Blindstrom converge.
