Remont / Ремонт

Installation & Exhibition

Kyiv, UA New York, NY Medford, MA
2019

The exhibition

 

On November 21, 2019, ​IZOLYATSIA presents Remont, a site-specific installation by renowned Tunis-born artist of Ukrainian origin Nadia Kaabi-Linke at the IZONE Creative Community. The interactive installation is made for the IZONE exhibition space on the second floor, transforming it into a transit zone that connects the stairway and the cafeteria. Usually the exhibition space is the opposite of a passage, functioning as a site for reflection and spending time whereas in this case its function is intentionally subverted.

The Ukrainian word ‘remont’ can be humbly translated into English as renovation or maintenance, however the nuanced meanings slip away in the act of translation. Accordingly, remont can better be described as a long-term, ongoing or even never-ending process of keeping together that which threatens to decay, usually infrastructure. Remont initiatives are stereotypically mismanaged, chaotic, low-quality. They are often carried out by the very same inhabitants of the building who by no means have professional skills.
Taken as a metaphor that best describes the current state of affairs in the world, Kaabi-Linke’s Remont consists of natural paving stones loosely laid out on the floor and missing grout between the stones on the walls.

The latter creates filigrane, yet minimalist relief embracing the passage of the exhibition space. The missing mortar between the stones will cause a wobbling and noisy ground once someone is walking on it. The simple act of walking and moving forward is uprooted by an underlying feeling of insecurity. The noise produced with each new step echoes the public discourses and debates seeking solutions to economic, political, environmental, social, etc. problems. The question of whether problem and solution will pair goes unanswered.

Kaabi-Linke’s hints at the notion that instability and viral uncertainty is a new normal in our contemporary moment. The fear of loss in material wealth, prestige, esteem and influence overpowers the facts appear incompatible.

Yet despite perennial anxiety of social and economic decline, one grows accustomed to the imbalanced distribution of wealth. The environmental effects of capitalism commodifying all aspects of human activity are well established, and yet there is still no seismic shift in socio-political understanding in sight. Kaabi-Linke’s installation thus becomes a metaphor for this kind of collective indifference to any necessity of change.

— Kateryna Filyuk

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More Information

Nadia Kaabi-Linke’s new exhibit is an immersive installation titled “Remont.” […] The artist describes the world and the current state of things and explains how her work begins from there. The installation brings elements of the outside world into the gallery.

“Looking back at the country’s history with a succession of crises and traumas, people have never lost their lightness of being and their optimism,” says Nadia Kaabi-Linke. She believes part of this comes from a work ethic developed with the ongoing reparation activity.

“I felt like reparation, or refurbishment is not just an act of doing something; it’s a way of being, and I wanted to translate this into an exhibition […] When you look at roadworks or institutional issues, you will find initiatives to fix the problems. Still, we fix them in ways that create other problems, leading to an ongoing chain of improvements without improving anything […] It’s a succession of things where we think, ‘OK, we have really touched the bottom, and it’s going any lower – and yet we still go lower.”

In an attempt to evoke the feeling of instability, Kaabi-Linke uses a shaky floor with cobblestones that are not connected to each other. The missing mortar is found on the wall.

“I wanted to separate the problem from the solution in a way that we can permanently see the solution that would fix the problem of the unstable ground once and for all in front of our eyes. The solution to the problem becomes a persistent target. Yet, instead of attaining the goal of problem-solving, the idea of a solution limits the space of movement.”

“Endless State of Renovation” Focus of Surrealist Exhibit, UATV
Published: 30/11/2019