INSTRUCTIONS for [pre/ab]sence

The project experiments with transmitting artistic practice across distance. It is built around a system of instructions we developed, through which artists living in different countries and under different circumstances transmit their artistic actions to be realised without the author’s physical presence.

The project explores how distance transforms artistic practice, how authorship shifts in the absence of the artist’s physical presence, and what happens to a work in the process of its transmission. Our interest lies not in error or distortion, but in unintentional deformation as a natural consequence of distance and the impossibility of complete control. The project engages with different geographies, the impossibility of meeting, and the preservation of a shared artistic process across rupture.

The project envisions an exploration of the mechanisms of existence and transmission of artistic practice under conditions of geographic separation and limited communication. It is particularly oriented toward collaboration with artists whose practices have been interrupted or slowed due to war, migration, instability, or institutional constraints. In this context, the project operates not only as a research platform, but also as a tool for the reactivation of artistic practices.
28.08–15.09.2026

Opening: Friday, 28 August, 17:00
Opening hours: Monday–Sunday, 10:00–21:00
Address of Part 1 of the exhibition: 11 Stefanyka st.

The opening of Part 2 of the exhibition with MAKSYM FINOGEEVʼs @finomaks work will take place on 29 August at 19:00 at the @tovary.gallery, 173 Mekhanichna st.

curators:
VITA KOTYK @symvolporozhnosti
GO.RA @go.__ra

artists:
DIANA DERII @diana_derii
INAKSHE GROUP @inakshe_group
YEVHENIIA KOSTRYKINA @yevheniia.kostrykina

tutor:
LESIA KHOMENKO @lesia__khomenko

researcher:
POLINA BAITSYM

The project is realised within the third cycle of “Scattered Communities” and is supported by Insha Osvita @insha_osvita_community and the Asortymentna Kimnata @asortymentna_kimnata. Special thanks to Alona Karavai @karavaikaravai and Kateryna Osypchuk @o.katerynka.

Gratitude to the team of the Lviv Municipal Art Center for their trust and for the opportunity to realise the exhibition as part of the institution’s programme, and especially to Lyana Mytsko for support and for dialogue.

On image: GO.RA, SOLNA KOMMUN, 2024.