Artists Statement

Venue: Customs Office and Warehouse Building, Helsinki

The works of Savadov & Senchenko unite the two directions of Conversion: to recycle Army property and to exploit the technology developed in the military factories. As stated [by the curator], information technology was considered a medium only for propaganda, oppression, and conceit.

ISEA Archives Video Channel: 

• Georgy Senchenko, 1962. Prominent Ukrainian artist, one of the founders of the Ukrainian trans-avantgarde. From 1982 until 1996, he worked with Arsen Savadov. In 1987 their collaborative work “Cleopatra’s Sorrow” created a splash at the Fiac fair in Paris. In 1991 a large personal exhibition of Savadov and Senchenko was held in the Central House of Artists in Moscow and in 1992 in New York at the Berman Gallery. Artists were the first who represented Ukraine at such influential contemporary art forums as the Biennale Manifesta 1 in Rotterdam and the Biennale of Santa Fe. [source: shcherbenkoartcentre.com/en/artists/georgy-senchenko-en/, accessed 29.09.2021]
• Arsen Savadov, 1962 Kiev, Ukraine. savadov.com