Dyachenko Marta

M17 Sculpture Prize 2020 Selection Jury honorary mention, based on the discussions of the implemented projects.

Author about the concept of the project shortlisted for the M17 Sculpture Prize:

“The landscapes in the surrounding environment are in constant motion. They are shifted, constructed, destroyed. Some ideas remain unfinished – they remain as fragments. Our environment has an impact on our perception of space and the world.

My childhood memories are dominated by infrastructures like post-war high-ways that connect ‘dormitory’ suburbs with downtown Kyiv as well as semi-destroyed structures of the ’90s and the early 2000s, such as abandoned swimming pools, tunnels and houses. Crumbling concrete with the rebar getting visible and chipped off tiles, exposing bare walls – these are the examples of the ‘destructive’ state of space which offer unintended insight into the construction methods of these buildings. It was this condition that influenced my vision and perception of space during my studies in Berlin.

Since then, I have focused on the perception of building elements, infrastructure and other objects and complexes of various anthropogenic landscapes in my creative work. I compare infrastructure elements in space with the ruins and pavilions in the English landscape garden system, where the object (pavilion) and the environment together form a consolidated view of the landscape.

In my work for the Prize, I combined elements of landscapes from the memories of my childhood (the beginning of my understanding of the space around) with infrastructural elements of the landscape from Berlin and the Port of Rotterdam. Thus, a new fictive landscape was formed, which incorporated the state of destruction with the state of ‘newly constructed’.

As the base, the composition contains a welded metal structure that supports the elevated fragment of the landscape (a kind of ‘Flying Island’ arising from my childhood memories and associations) as well as the orange paper ribbon with a print of the industrial zone by the Port of Rotterdam. The composition is supplemented by ceramic and concrete elements situated on the floor as a reminder of the unexecuted objects from the ‘Grand Plan’.”

Marianne Wagner, an expert of the Selection Jury of the Prize, comments on the project:

“Marta Dyachenko brought up the city, the environment and the landscape thing really convincingly, discussing questions of perception in a very contemporary manner. The idea of bringing together different fragments of buildings, structures and visions is taking up subjects of commemoration and history in an open and critical way. The mentioned references of the artist’s roots (cities of Kyiv, Rotterdam and Berlin) seem to be too personal, but the work has the potential to open a more general way to touch common grounds beyond these individual roots.”

M17 Sculpture Prize 2020