Daniil Galkin - Ten Projects

1. Personal exhibition «Glasshouse Conditions» c/o Schocke, Hamburg, 2018 Having transformed a Soviet refrigerated display case into an incubator, the artist places the visitor inside this display case, similar to a fragment of the icon "The Last Judgment" depicting a human soul enslaved in the Satan’s shell*. Further, having converted the exhibition space in a residential apartment into a terrarium filled with soil, with anthropomorphic objects packed in polypropylene bags sprouting from it, Galkin approaches the issue of nationalism’s origin and consequences, i.e. creation of glasshouse conditions for the thriving of far-right movements which often act as lynchers of those unacceptable to their ideology or those opposed to it. Apart from the need to punish the self-proclaimed judges, the work questions the viability of the historic development trend of a “rooted” nation, it being a completely immobile organism deprived of the opportunity to grow. Regardless, nourished by the rays of a Black Sun**, the infertile seeds are gaining pace in their uncontrollability with the unspoken consent of the government controlling them. * Satan in hell with Judah’s soul in his hands. Fragment of the Last Judgment icon.

Novgorod school. Mid-15th century. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. ** Esoteric occult symbol widely used in German neo-pagan and Nazi mysticism.

Currently employed by Neo-Nazi, alt-right, White nationalist and other related political groups.

(а) When the left hand is broken, do not scorn the right one (б) Thank God both of my hands are left

Esoteric occult symbol widely used in German neo-pagan and Nazi mysticism. Currently employed

by Neo-Nazi, alt-right, White nationalist and other related political groups

Satan in hell with Judah’s soul in his hands. Fragment of the Last Judgment icon. Novgorod school. Mid15th century. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

2. Personal exhibition «Soft Spot» (Fontanelle) Open Studios, Beirut, 2018

A modern fortress is nothing more than a long series of support stations, each one resembling an ambiguous instrument: a pseudo-tank made of concrete, the giant helmet of artillery observation posts, the zoomorphic forms of command centers with their frontal dome and their lateral epaulets... An odd mixture, the fortification has become a combination of different species: mineral and animal come together in a strange fashion, as if the last fortress symbolized all of the armor types of the carapace, from the turtle to the tank.

Bunker Archeologie. Paul Virilio

Between state-of-the-art buildings and upscale stores lies a weird building in Downtown Beirut called “the egg” which was initially part of a commercial complex designed by the Lebanese architect Joseph Philippe Karam in 1965.When the civil war started in 1975 the construction of the ‘Beirut City Center’ was still unfinished. Only one tower was built. But during several periods of war in-between 1975 up to 2006, the whole unfinished ensemble largely disappeared. The Egg and a large void for underground parking are the remaining fragments of Karam’s original plan that survived constant amputation due to urban warfare, bombings and further demolition of war-ruined parts commissioned by local authorities over the years. In the end the appearance of the remaining structure, nowadays known as The Egg, has shifted from being unobtrusive to eye-catching. What you can see now in the city center of Beirut is more or less reminiscent of a bunker in the sense of Paul Virilio’s ‘Monolith’ – a massive structure which survived several attacks, but still stands and has since become a monument. Also it simultaneously recalls the brutalist architecture of Claude Parent, particularly the Church of Sainte Bernadette de Banlay in Nevers, France (built between 1963 and 1966), but with scars, holes and other penetrations caused by constant instability. Finally the original planning for the ‘Beirut City Center’ transformed from being a clearly elaborated modernist set of buildings to a seemingly brutalist monument which is now perceived as The Egg due to its remaining iconic shape.

It is also notable that the “Egg” is consonant with the architectural ensemble on the site of the Tripoli International Fair, at eighty kilometers of Beirut, where one finds one of the five largest exhibition centers in the world designed by legendary Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in 1963. The center remains unfinished due to the project's abandonment during the country's civil war in 1975. The deserted ten thousand square meters of the park now look like a memorial to the end of human civilization, with the cascade of chairs turned towards the scene bringing us back to the destroyed J. P. Karam movie theater.

Having discovered the “Fontanelle” or “Soft Spot”, i.e. unossifiedskull area in infants, Galkin proceeds to design the “egg” reconstruction project, which essentially proposes a new concept for interpreting the form through recreation of the author’s primary idea and not through deformation of this form. Having researched its emergence, the artist begins to perceive the destroyed “Beirut City Center” building as an international monument, resembling an amputated extremity of a live organism. Thus the security checkpoint consisting of “stumps” and a shop window demonstrating stages of their destruction stand for the fleetingness of collective memory and vulnerability of any modern fortress.

1. Verrucous hyperplasia of amputation stump.

2. The model of a small experimental theater designed in 1962 in collaboration with AndrĂŠ Bloc for a site in Dakar.CreditFrom Claude Parent: L'Oeuvre Construite.

3. "Beirut City Center" by the Lebanese architect J. P. Karam. Photo: WordPress.com 4. Concrete dome housing an experimental theater, Tripoli International Fair (Rashid Karameh International Exhibition Center) in Lebanon. Photo: D. Galkin.

5. Illustration of one of the bunkers from the book Bunker Archaeology by Paul Virilio, in which the urbanist Paul Virilio turns his attention and camerato the ominous yet strangely compelling German bunkers that lie abandoned along the coast of France.

These ghostly reminders of destruction and oppression prompted Virilio to consider the

nature of war and existence, in relation to both World War II and contemporary times.

Virilio discusses fortresses and military space in general, as well as the bunkers themselves, including the examination of the role of Albert Speer, Hitler's architect, in the rise of the Third Reich.

6. Church of St Bernadette in Nevers, France, 1966. The building was conceived by Claude Parent with philosopher Paul Virilio who was experimenting with designs based on bunkers from the Second World War. The pair's experience of vertigo inside German bunkers constructed along the Atlantic Wall became their reference for the church. Mr. Parent’s building — massive concrete walls with rounded corners and slot windows — is the expression of a culture living under the constant threat of nuclear annihilation and still haunted by the devastation of World War II. Inside, two sloped seating areas converge under the light of a long, narrow window running the length of the roof, creating a space of disquieting solitude. Photo: Luc Edouard and Gilles Ehrmann.

7. On the photo baby anterior fontanelle 1 month. A fontanelle (colloquially, soft spot) is an anatomical feature of the infant human skull comprising any of the soft membranous gaps between the cranial bones that make up the calvaria of a fetus or an infant.

Fontanelles allow for rapid stretching and deformation of the neurocranium as the brain expands faster than the surrounding bone can grow.

8. "Flagpole base penetrating the "Soft spot". Installation of D. Galkin, 2014. Materials: Metal, hair.

9. Screenshot from the anti-war film "Johnny Got His Gong" (1971). American drama written and directed by Dalton Trumbo and features an uncredited writing collaboration

by Luis Buñuel. The film is about a young American soldier hit by an artillery shell during World War I, lies in a hospital bed. He is a quadruple amputee who has also lost his eyes, ears, mouth and nose. He remains conscious and able to reason, but his wounds.

As he drifts between reality and fantasy, he remembers his old life with his family. He also forms a bond, of sorts, with a young nurse who senses his plight. Eventually, Joe tries to communicate to his doctors, via Morse code, by nodding his head, saying "help."

He wishes for the US Army to put him in the glass of coffin in a freak show as a demonstration of the horrors of war. When told that his wish may be impossible to grant, he responds, begging to be euthanized, repeatedly saying "kill me."He ultimately realizes that the Army can grant the death of death. His sympathetic nurse attempts to euthanize him by clamping his breathing tube, but her supervisor stops her before Joe can succumb. Joe realizes that he will never be released from his state of entrapment and he is left alone, weakly chanting, "SOS Help me."

10. The installation «Stumpys» D. Galkin, which is a part of the exhibition "Soft Spot". These symbols are the best of the unconscious because they can be universal and relevant at the same time. Speaking more abstractly, phantom limb pain is our dream of a utopian just state. It never was and never will be.Text from the article Dissociative resocialization, Dialogue of Arts №5, 2014.

3. Personal exhibition «Self-education Classroom», Construction Festival Dnipropetrovsk Art Museum, Dnipro, 2018 Everyone who deals with organizations, understands the bureaucratic logic of Catch-22.

In high school or college, for example, students can participate in student government, a form of self-government and democracy that allows them to decide whatever they want, just so long as the principal or dean of students approves. This bogus democracy, that can be overruled by arbitrary fiat, is, perhaps, a citizen's first encounter with organizations, that may profess 'open' and libertarian values, but in fact are closed and hierarchical systems. Catch-22 is an organizational assumption, an unwritten law of informal power that exempts the organization from responsibility and accountability and puts the individual in the absurd position of being excepted for the convenience or unknown purposes of the organization.1 Inspired by the 2007 scandal in Germany when a goalkeeper disclosed the data on goalposts not conforming to the international DBNs (National Building Standards), Daniil Galkin has had the idea to create a “Self-education Classroom” – a platform that would be dedicated to rules and standards, and to facilities or reports violating them. Wishing to play by the book in Ukraine, people often find themselves in a vicious circle restricting them in their lawful actions in relation to the authorities. Thus the project proposes a collaboration with the viewers to create a library of private stories which shape an alternative truth in the bureaucratic lines of Catch 22, and also an attempt to counteract corruption by looking for the opportunities of a legal inspection of inspectors who being empowered by the rules to charge individuals and entities with crimes are themselves predominantly incapable of complying with those rules.

James E. Combs, Dan D. Nimmo. The Comedy of Democracy. — Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996. — 218 с. — ISBN 9780275949792.

Documentation of the “Remove the Blinders” campaign, 2017. On an open house day, the artist placed posters in the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, proposing to remove the “French” curtains whose heavy folds tend to remind of the iron curtain times in a post-Soviet space. This “grand” method is still used to decorate windows at miscellaneous state institutions providing a dull lighting which seems to hint at the nontransparent financial system reigning in those buildings.

Size table or “ruler” sticker designated for scaling and recording the location of government facilities which may fall under a viewer’s suspicion.

Ballet Exam, 2017. The video refers to the 1982 National Police Day which became the symbol of the Soviet Union’s collapse; on this day the television channels broadcast the Swan Lake instead of a gala music concert. Galkin thus compares an adult, i.e. political choreography against a children’s one, elegantly pondering over what might become of the young ballet dancers in the future. Link to video: https://vimeo.com/290185863 .

Urban Improvements. In the artist’s opinion, the major threat that the public space has been facing lately, apart from physical destruction, is represented by murals which are meant to “improve” the city’s facades. Using his installation to make a “before and after” comparison, Galkin casts doubts on the artistic value of this method through the example of murals created in Soniachnyi residential area (Dnipro), and questions the competence of the city’s council approving them.

More: https://www.facebook.com/daniil.galkin.7/posts/10212322606162499?__tn__=K-R

4. Restoration after restoration, group exhibition «Kazus» Museum of S.S. Prokofiev, village Soncevka, 2018 Expositions of memorial museums are like information capsules, unchanging and intact.

But each museum requires modification to develop, and upgrading may often turn out to be destructive or even degrading. From the time of its establishment, Prokofiev’s Museum in Sontsovka had an integral and balanced exposition which had been developed by a group of artists and architects from Leningrad Arts Complex headed by Boris Beider in 1991. In 2011-2012, as part of preparation for Euro-2012 Championship, the Museum authorities decided to renovate it and include in the list of tourist attractions associated with the new regional brand ― the motherhood of Sergei Prokofiev. The works carried out in the Museum in 2012 changed the interiors, but domestic repairs did not only distort the artistic solutions of the exposition but actually damaged the original exhibits. By analogy with Rosalind Krauss’s thoughts about sculpture and pedestal, the issue of integrity of museum space and exhibits arises. Where does the exhibition end and the interior commences? A museum exposition is not only an assembly and sequence of certain items, it is also the color of walls, floor coverings and brightness of light. Even minimum interference breaks its linearity, and this could contribute to expanding the museum narrative or, on the contrary, destroy it. If we follow the history of Prokofiev’s Museum renovation, the instructions “from the above” become evident, justified only by subjective aesthetic tastes of corresponding officials. And this is exemplary, since the "improvements" concern the museum exhibits directly. The wood chair from Prokofiev's manor house decorated with ornamented fabric is the quintessence of such directives. In their perilous pursuit to improve, the power figures disregard the value of the original, neglecting one of the basic museum functions ― conservation.

During preparations for the 2012 UEFA European Championship a museum associate was ordered to cover one of the museum specimens ― a chair more than 100 years old ― with modern materials. Today, as part of the Museum Shapeshifter project, we have the opportunity, with the support of the same museum associate, to restore the original appearance of this specimen, until further improvement.

Link to video: https://vimeo.com/258058551

Set of postcards: https://issuu.com/daniilgalkin/docs/pereverten

5. Handrails, National Art Museum of Ukraine Kiev, 2017 Galkin’s work prompts the viewer to reflect on a rather uncomfortable topic: creating a barrier-free environment for the disabled. Metal handrails – everyday objects designed to make public institutions more accessible to people with disabilities – become subject to dual manipulation. When placed inside the National Art Museum, they acquire the status of a work of art; but when fitted in places where they can’t perform their intended function, they become useless.

Galkin seeks to discuss the dysfunctional and purely decorative function of many government initiatives by pointing out the paradoxical situation where more money is being spent renaming streets under decommunization than making the city accessible to people with disabilities. According to the artist, each handrail in the museum space is a whole street of lost opportunities for the disabled. The artist has included a donation box to raise funds for a wheelchair ramp to be installed at the main entrance to the Verkhovna Rada.

Empathic perception of disability removes blinkers from the eyes, revealing the limitedness and lack of adaptability of the public space for people with special needs.

Metal handrails reminiscent of snakes slither through the nooks of the National Art Museum of Ukraine. They are chaotic and illogical until they become a pronounced barrier between viewers and a work of art. Daniil Galkin took the self-portrait of Taras Chevtchenko from 1860 hostage so the museum’s management would provide equal access for all visitors to the exhibition.

Having dismantled the handrails, artist installed them at private homes of disabled persons in a number of Ukrainian cities, thus giving the items their initial function. Galkin thus converted the money (provided by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine for making art) into social aid.

National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kiev, 2017 – Private apartment at Chechelovskiy district, Dnipro, 2018

National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kiev, 2017 – Private apartment at Solnechniy district, Dnipro, 2018

Art piece caption: «By installing rails blocking at eye-level the principal exhibit of the National Art Museum of Ukraine, I address the Ukrainian society to call attention to the issue: why the State fails to care about people with disabilities but is absorbed in eliminating communist ideology at a time of military action in the country with the growing number of people who, like pets, physically cannot leave their house or, like we now, cannot view the self-portrait of T. G. Shevchenko».

The National Art Museum of Ukraine is currently undergoing repairs meant to partially solve the issue of lacking equipment for disabled people, regardless of the fact whether the project “Handrails” directly or indirectly influenced this process.

Illustration of Ukrainian politicians carried on modern palanquins by personal porters

Fundraising box for a wheelchair ramp at the Verkhovna Rada main entrance, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kiev, 2017 Donations: https://vimeo.com/248449211

6. Catalogue «Pets, Snakes, and Ladders» Kunstlerhaus Lauenburg/Elbe, 2018 Daniil Galkin's artistic language resembles the lattice of a crystal: An assembly of equally joined images emerging from a separate random point that facilitates endless connotative patterns. “Turnstile-tourniquets”, red stretchers, chrome-plated handrails, “stumpies”, concrete fences — these represent the common denominator of symbols the artist has mastered in making his convincing statement. “Snakes and Ladders” is a board game originally conceived as a religious manual for neophytes in India. This game of good and evil involves climbing ladders of virtue and the reverse movement caused by vices. The original game has a fixed number of virtues and vices, with much fewer virtues than vices. Daniil Galkin adheres to the rules but mirrors them depending on the player's position, thus provoking intricate ambiguities. In the context of human rights the turnstiles are “snakes” — vices of the public space, uncomfortable limitations, and the shiny handrails are ladders — the possibility of unobstructed movement for all.

From the viewpoint of the authorities, however, the turnstile becomes the desired “ladder” — the need to control, and handrails the unneeded “snakes”. Anyone, no matter what their disposition or position is, can play this game. Except perhaps the “pets”, who are subject to restrictions and are therefore unable to feel comfortable in society. These causes of discomfort may vary: physical limitations, discrimination etc.

The conception of wellbeing is itself multifaceted and dependent on one's individual viewpoint. […]

The presentation in Ukraine is scheduled for late December this year.

To read the full text and view the online version of the catalogue, please follow the link:

https://issuu.com/daniilgalkin/docs/catalogue

7. Selective breeding, group exhibition «Stipendiatengeneration der 31» Künstlerhaus Lauenburg/Elbe, 2017 The exhibition was built around the “rat king” installation displayed in a glass case in the basement where one could observe the process of its disintegration during several months, up to the complete destruction of all tissues. The work was supplemented with a video created in 2013, inwhich common rats are temporarily put to sleep using opium, with their tails tied together while they are asleep, and the moment of awakening of a new selectively bred organism, as a reference, for example, to a false improvement of social standing.

Thus a statement was made on how some manipulate the others by instilling a specific value system, and on related fundamental convictions and mystifications; unnaturally hatched presidents, for instance, or selectively bred influential figures – the rat kings living off the society managed by them. If one is to believe the story, rat kings emerge due to the birth of rats in an unfavorable environment; as a consequence of commotion and quick growth, their tails become interlocked, preventing the breed from getting out.

It is notable that this creature can only survive with the help of other rats bringing the food. Also, it is no coincidence that the above gives a reminder of the Universe 25 rat experiment* which proved the failure of the utopic development trend of any society, and of the legend of Hamelin Rat-Catcher – a piper deceived by the magistrate of the town of Hamelin** who refuses to pay him for freeing the town of the rats and against whom the piper retaliates using his instrument's magical power on the town’s children, leading them away. * Ref.JohnB. Calhoun (May 11, 1917 – September 7, 1995). ** Hamelin is a town in the German state of Lower Saxony to which also belongs the town of Lauenburg where this project was presented.

No animal was harmed by project organizers or the author during the creation of works included in the exposition.

The project then continued with a series of items called “brooches of fear” (Angstbrosche) which is an epithet used by German citizens dissatisfied with the Nazi regime to describe the Nazi party badge. These items are made of crows’ feet represented through intimidating symbols of the Lower State power originating from Freemasonry and being the result of investigation of birds used in the heraldry of different countries.

No animal was harmed by project organizers or the author during the creation of works included in the exposition.

8. Personal exhibition «Wavy Underscore» Künstlerhaus Lauenburg/Elbe, 2017 The exposition begins with a series of graffiti stencils depicting a styled disintegration of the tourniquet (representing state order) and its transformation into weapons, tridents, hay forks, police batons, handkerchiefs, anti-tank hedgehogs, stars of life and so on. This is a process of adaptation of an inanimate element in a live organism and its conversion into an essential organ which parasitizes on the environment, successfully disguising itself as one.

Therefore, it is no accident that the graphic pictures appear as if they were silhouettes of elements borrowed from the wildlife. The exposition continues with an installation consisting of medical stretchers – the outcome of several transmutations of the red carpet which is traditionally used to mark the itinerary for the heads of state during ceremonial and formal events but in this case being the symbol of politicians’ crimes against their own people.

Next on the scene are medical stretchers produced from the red carpet instead of traditional fabric which in their turn are transformed into rally banners, with slogans always at hand, disguised as interests of an already recruited society. Thus the circle closes and all attempts to break it are in vain. Therefore, in one of the key exhibition works, the exclamation “ура” and its English transcription (upa) is an ambivalent slogan which is used not as a jubilant exclamation expressing delight, joy and general enthusiasm but as a battle cry inciting panic fear of unification and empowerment of ultra-right ideologies (fn, afd, pis, etc), of inaction regarding them, and loss of feeling of the phantom limb pains of history and high risk of repeated acquisition thereof. Thus the project draws a red wave line under the destructive development vector through assemblies of political personal and social turningpoints, in one case as a statement, in another as a warning.

Link to video: https://vimeo.com/242776381

Galkin’s installation made of traditional stretchers imitates a theater drape and is presented in such a way that visitors can pass from one exposition room to another by parting the curtains, as if finding themselves behind the stage of political brouhaha.

Personal exhibition «Nothing Common, Nothing Personal», Wschód Kultury Festival org. Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, 2016

Personal exhibition «When They Came» , Pracownia R5, Bialystok, 2016

Checkpoint, group exhibition “Red Carpet” Lavra City Gallery, Kiev, 2014

Уpa, group exhibitions “Baywatch”, KVOST, Berlin, 2018

9. Tourniquet Gangwon International Biennale «The Dictionary of Evil» Gangneung, South Korea, 2018 The interactive installation “Tourniquet” stands for forced restriction of movement in terms of negative trends of human development. The author compelling visitors to wade through rotating obstacle lines. Passing one tourniquet after another with apprehension, we register and fix in our brain a feeling of discomfort and danger. It is as if we fall into symbolic “clutches of power” controlling our movement around a determined perimeter.

Transmutation “Tourniquet ― Overturn ― Baton” demonstrating its central element’s disintegration into pieces. The whole process is supported by a secondary linking member ― a gypsum bandage which not only discloses the etymology of the word “tourniquet” but transforms black into white. Thus, both color and transcription of the form are subject to achromatic inversion. This resembles political psychology experiments conducted in the USSR where children were persuaded to say black is white and vice versa, in order to manipulate people‘s consciousness in the interests of the state. “Tourniquet” (French) originates from medical terminology and means the tool designed to compress soft tissues of extremities in order to stop the bleeding. The movement of a crowd is thus compared to a bleeding which is directed, blocked. The installation “Upsurge with Overturn” is barricades of tourniquets representing coup d’état and changeover of policy makers. It is remarkable that the process of tourniquet’s decomposition has actually occurred in real life.

Initially there was a labyrinth of functioning tourniquets was presented in Kiev in October 2013, and then the Ukrainian revolution followed one month later, and then the President’s impeachment. Now the tourniquet has disintegrated and turned into a large number of nightsticks, which will be later assembled into new tourniquets.

Tourniquet, 2013, exhibition view PinchukArtCentre Prize, Kiev, 2013

Tourniquet, Gangwon International Biennale “The Dictionary of Evil" Gangneung, South Korea, 2018

Tourniquet, group exhibition “Fire and Forget. On violence”, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2015

Upsurge with Overturn, group exhibition “Brno Art Open”, The Liberty Square and New Town Hall, Brno, 2015

10. Personal exhibition «Dream Paralysis» CCA Kronika, Bytom, 2016 Government officials often abuse the power entrusted to them by using state property for their own benefit. Such behavior cannot fail to outrage people and incite interest in the things covered up by the “high fences” of these officials. Thus, the project “A Trampoline or Social Critical Voyeurism” offers its viewers to indicate whose fences they would like to peep in with the aid of a trampoline, thus taking the opportunity to examine the territory concerned without trespassing.

As a consequence, the trampoline displayed in the gallery space symbolizes the encounter of people with the ruling machine and the subsequent traumatic experience, similar to blows on the head caused by trampoline jumping in low-ceiling premises. The exposition also incorporates “soft fences” – an imitation of concrete fencing slabs (PO2) which were used in the USSR (and still used in the post-Soviet states). And since any fence performs a protective function, we have produced it from “PO-2 Pillows” to underscore the aesthetics of the soft walls in psychiatric institutions. Thus we propose a method to describe how people are manipulated and confine themselves to the comfort zone, not seeing the concrete foundation behind the soft facing which also has a protective function but in keeping with the traditions of a penitentiary state.

The installation will be complemented with video art documenting previous attempts to peek over the fences during the first trampoline tour in Ukrainian cities.

Documetation to performans: https://vimeo.com/182204329

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Trampoline or Social Critical Voyeurism, group exhibition «Now in Poland» Galeria Labirynt, Lublin, 2016