PROEKT KINO KOSMOS

Solo exhibition by Vasilena Gankovska

June 3 – July 1, 2022

Scope BLN, Berlin

 

 

Monumental, imposing, modernist. The buildings of the cinemas from the time of socialism in Eastern Europe manifest the utopias and ambitions of the societies of that time. Just as Soviet films were widely distributed outside the Soviet Union, the architecture of cinemas became an object of export. It has no economic or commercial goals but aims to export propaganda, aesthetics and ideology.

PROEKT KINO KOSMOS by Vasilena Gankovska presents paintings, photography, ceramics and objects that are inspired by two themes combined in a multilayered semantic, historical, architectural and ideological construct.

The first topic is the so-called phenomenon of export architecture. The progressive Soviet architecture between 1960s, and 1980s was deliberately spread in the countries of the socialist bloc and thus became an ideological and propaganda tool.

The second topic is contained in the word “KOSMOS” (Cosmos). In the second half of the 20th century, Cosmos was the common name for cinemas from Vladivostok through Berlin, from Riga to Plovdiv. Perhaps the Space Race during the Cold War was the fastest-growing process by which the West and the East were competing in space.

In the case of cinemas, late modernism or brutalist architecture, it is in line with futuristic visions of space and its transformation into a field of ideological supremacy.

PROEKT KINO KOSMOS interprets the cultural heritage of two exemplary cinemas called "Cosmos" - one in Berlin and the other in Plovdiv. In the exhibition, these two cinemas enter into a visual dialogue with each other. The aim of the artist is to study the multifaceted processes such as historical change, economics and commercialization that occurred after the collapse of the socialist system.

While the building in Berlin was completely renovated and expanded a few years ago, the Plovdiv cinema is still awaiting a major overhaul. What unites both buildings is their status as exemplary objects from the past, of symbols that have reached a cult status for researchers of brutalism (Plovdiv) or admirers of late modernism (Berlin). At the same time, they no longer perform their original function in public places for the presentation of films.

Vasilena Gankovska uses her documentary photographs to develop her own artistic "hypothesis" about the life of historical culture that has crossed the borders of a new historical and economic stage.

The exciting moment lies in the transfer of these architectural models, as well as in the translation of visual information between / (in) different media (photography, drawing, painting and digital collage).

The transmission can also mix, assemble and deconstruct elements of both buildings. Ultimately, this process is also a process of reflecting on the fate of cinemas and how their (previous) role has changed from a center of cultural experience to a place of entertainment, to the point of its complete closure.

In this sense, PROEKT KINO KOSMOS is also about the time of political change, the commercialization of public spaces and the way in which the architectural and cultural heritage is treated 30 years since the beginning of these processes.

 

 

Vasilena Gankovska, born 1978 in Troyan, based in Vienna since 2001 and works as visual artist. Degree in Fine Arts, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Selected exhibitions: Proekt Kino Kosmos, Scope BLN, Berlin (2022), Multiple Singularities, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (2020), bleischwer (with Jelena Micic and Lara Erel), Fabrikraum, Vienna (2020), Contemporary News* Shepard Fairy meets Vasilena Gankovska, Hilger NEXT (2019), Moscow Cinema Project, House on the Embankment, Moscow, (2018). Her artistic work deals with the different aspects of urban life, leisure, and work and their respective spaces. Gankovska navigates between different media such as painting, photography, drawing, and installation. The artistic research includes city walks, derives, and short texts, which accompany her so-called “visual notes”. The results are often presented in publications, such as “Moscow Cinema Project” (2019) and “Visual Strategies. Urban space reformulated” (2014), which she self-published.

Web page: Vasilena Gankovska

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