KYIV – VENICE

M17 Contemporary Art Center presents a project that symbolically extends a bridge between two of Europe’s defining waterways – the Dnipro River and the Venetian Lagoon. Rather than proposing an analytical counterpart to this year’s Venice Biennale, the exhibition unfolds as an act of imaginative gesture. By gathering thousands of voices under the title In Minor Keys, the late curator Koyo Kouoh paid tribute to the value of life itself, articulating a vision rooted in ecological humanism and social coexistence. Within this wider constellation of ideas, M17 turns to the notion of the minor key not as a register of sorrow, but as a language of hope – a quiet anticipation of dawn.

To enter into dialogue with the Biennale is an undertaking of considerable responsibility. This year’s edition has already been described as one of the most politically charged and contested in the exhibition’s history. Venice became a site of protest, confrontation and civic urgency. Across the Biennale, artists grappled with the cynicism and brutality of war, collective trauma, the unresolved legacies of colonialism, and the lasting consequences of ecological devastation.

Among this multitude of narratives, our exhibition deliberately follows only a handful of threads. We focused on the local experience of the minor key, drawing inspiration from Koyo Kouoh’s aspiration to reconsider traditional artistic practices as living creative media, to rediscover the origins of artistic expression, and to venture into the unknown “universes” and archaic “sanctuaries” imagined by artists.

Unlike the major key, the minor speaks softly. Within the framework of this exhibition, it is neither synonymous with sadness nor with melancholy. Instead, it offers a mode of slowing down – an invitation to an intimate and honest dialogue with oneself. It is the tonality of inner balance, of quiet joy, and of healing.

M17 has previously explored the therapeutic potential of artistic practice through collaborative art therapy sessions with artists. Yet a fundamental question remains: can an exhibition itself create the conditions for transformation? Can there be a creative methodology of healing? Koyo Kouoh invoked the metaphor of the Creole garden and the inner courtyard as spaces of rest, reconnection and interaction.

Such places of learning and regeneration, grounded in shared knowledge and collective autonomy, became entire ecosystems – “schools” deeply rooted in their local traditions, communities and landscapes.

Inspired by this understanding of collaboration and shared making, we have conceived our own transformative journey through the exhibition: a sequence of spaces dedicated to rest, contemplation, sound, words and movement. The exhibition seeks to create conditions for reverie and enchantment, inviting visitors to slow their pace and allow unexpected experiences to emerge.

Immersing ourselves in archaic and mythical narratives, we have allowed ourselves to depart from the resolutely “serious” trajectory often associated with contemporary art, placing our trust instead in imagination and myth, melody and poetry, movement and meditation, embroidery, and even gardening.

Given the intimate scale of M17 Contemporary Art Center, the exhibition may itself be understood as an experiment in establishing a Minor Keys School – an ecosystem where artists and visitors engage in a continuous process of exchange and mutual learning.

A similar dialogue unfolds between Ukrainian artists and participants in the Venice Biennale, whose practices reveal unexpected thematic affinities across the imagined bridge connecting Kyiv and Venice. These conversations take shape through a series of thematic constellations – “Magical Beasts,” “Living Canvas,” “Frequencies of the Soul,” and others – forming stations along an alternative interpretative route that invites not only observation and participation, but also reflection.

Whichever path visitors choose to follow, both ultimately converge in the courtyard of M17. There, among flowers, an imagined Creole garden emerges on Antonovycha Street – a place conceived as an invitation to encounter oneself.

Participants: Antonia Banitska, Oksana Briukhovetska, Natalia Diachok and Dmytro Matiukhin, and Eugene Pylinsky and Andrii Moroz, Dmytro Erlikh and Illia Petrov, Anatoly Gankevich, Ganna Gidora, Oleg Golosiy, Egor Guschin, Yuliia Holub, Nelli Isupova, Viktoriia Kalashnyk, Alina Khorolska, Dariia Korniichuk, Natalia Lisova, Marta Nyrkova and Vlad Filonenko, Mykola Peremyshliev, Anastasiia Podervianska, Maria Prymachenko, Andrii Siderskyi, Oksana Solop, Tiberiy Szilvashi, Bogdan Tomashevsky, Ruslan Tremba, Anatolii Tverdy, Iryna Vodolazhchenko, Yuliya Wimmerlin, Oksana Zhurakovska

Curators: Natalia Shpytkovska, Yuliya Bukus

Exhibition Project Team: Fedir Sehin, Maryna Kulibaba, Alina Khorolska, Dmytro Lazarevych, Alla Podshyvalkina, and Pavlo Shevchuk.

Olfactory Partner: Aroma Fields, a Ukrainian essential oils brand. https://aromafields.com.ua/

The exhibition project at M17 Contemporary Art Centre is supported by the Adamovskiy Foundation.

Opening: 30 July, 6:30 pm

Venue: M17 Contemporary Art Center
102–104 Antonovycha Street, Kyiv

Admission is free with prior registration: https://nethunt.com/service/automation/forms/6a4e3a8e43e264f95a6b2e02

M17 Contemporary Art Center is a cultural institution that functions as an educational and research platform, an exhibition venue for Ukrainian and foreign contemporary art. The activities of the Center are aimed at creating a dialogue space for professional circles and all the representatives of the culture sector as a whole, at study and research of contemporary and related historical cultural processes. M17 supports art experiments, collaborations and international exchanges of experts, artists from various art fields, in order to integrate Ukrainian art into the world context.

Adamovskiy Foundation is a non-profit foundation founded in 2018 by businessman Andriy Adamovskiy. The Foundation’s activities are aimed at preserving and studying the cultural heritage of Ukraine and Eastern Europe. The Foundation’s mission is to promote culture and art as a guarantee of sustainable and enlightened development of society. The Foundation is actively involved in organising and supporting exhibition projects, publishing initiatives, educational and discussion platforms, international forums and expert sessions.