Ribbon International

Ribbon International RIBBON is a platform for exhibitions, commissions, public programs & grant-making, to be activated from Fall 24-25 at sites within Ukraine & beyond.

This Friday 15th May, join us at 6pm for ‘The Body in Literature and the Body of Literature: Stories of Incompleteness’ ...
11/05/2026

This Friday 15th May, join us at 6pm for ‘The Body in Literature and the Body of Literature: Stories of Incompleteness’ by Yevhenii Stasinevych at Pavilion 13.

Presented as part of the public program accompanying ‘A New Integrity,’ an exhibition by Nikita Kadan, this lecture will explore how Ukrainian literature has portrayed experiences of disability throughout its history, and what place these themes occupy within the broader literary canon.

Yevhenii Stasinevych is a Ukrainian literary critic, curator, lecturer, and TV and radio presenter. He was born in Kyiv, where he studied philology at National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. As a curator, Stasinevych is known for various art projects, including Ukraine WOW, Lesya Ukrainka: 150 Names, Land: Incredible Ukraine, and The World of Skovoroda. He is a senior research officer at the Kharkiv Literary Museum.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, ‘The Librarian’, c. 1566, oil on canvas. Skokloster Castle.
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Now Open: A New Integrity by Nikita Kadan is now on view at Pavilion 13.Commissioned and produced by RIBBON Internationa...
12/04/2026

Now Open: A New Integrity by Nikita Kadan is now on view at Pavilion 13.

Commissioned and produced by RIBBON International and opened on April 11 at Pavilion 13, in collaboration with the Pavilion of Culture, the work was created during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and explores how integrity is fractured and remade socially, territorially, and within the body itself. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Ukrainian veterans, Kadan brings together documentary theater, sound, and sculpture to trace how physical and psychological integrity is reconstructed after trauma.

Kadan’s sculptures perform slow, repetitive gestures synchronized to a soundscape by Clemens Poole, with veterans’ accounts of injury, rehabilitation, and life in recovery echoing throughout the Pavilion 13 exhibition space. These testimonies are voiced by Anastasiia Seheda in a register that invokes the figure of Cassandra, a prophet condemned to speak truths that go unheard. Her feminine narration also interferes with the dominant image of war as a male domain, signifying its impact on Ukrainian society as a whole.

Through these “witnesses,” Kadan gives form to absence, articulating a new language shaped by the body that emerges from injury and survival, bearing witness to what it has endured.

RIBBON International and the artist would like to thank the heroes who participated in creating this work.

On view through: May 31, 2026
Thursday – Sunday 12:00-19:00
Pavilion 13, Expo Center of Ukraine, 1 Akademika Glushkova Avenue, Kyiv

Installation photography by Dmytro Prutkin
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20/11/2025

Coming Soon: ‘Passers By’ by Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei

On December 6, artists and filmmakers Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei will bring voiced reflections from visually impaired Ukrainian veterans to the streets of Kyiv, in the first public art audio installation of its kind in the city. ‘Passers By’ invites sighted pedestrians crossing busy streets to inhabit, if only for a moment, the everyday life of a visually impaired person, generating new, unexpected perceptions of the urban environment.

Through this work, Malashchuk and Khimei respond to the ongoing physical and sensory traumas of Russia’s full-scale invasion on Ukraine, particularly the disproportionately high rates of facial and sensory injuries caused by the nature of modern combat.

Commissioned by RIBBON International.

On view in Kyiv, with Lviv and other cities coming soon.



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30/10/2025

Coming soon: A New Integrity by Nikita Kadan

Opening on the 4 December at Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi Train Station, A New Integrity is the first theater-based work by multidisciplinary Ukrainian artist Nikita Kadan.

Developed through interviews with veterans, medical professionals, and prosthetic engineers, the work stages a meditation on war, trauma, and the possibilities of bodily and personal transformation. Prosthetics take center stage as independent actors, performing repetitive, puppet-like movements while representing the lived experiences of those affected by war. Stories of rehabilitation, resilience, and the human response to trauma are voiced on stage, creating a dialogue between physical absence and imaginative reconstruction.
Commissioned by RIBBON International.

On view: 4 December – 31 December
Red Hall, Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi Train Station

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22/08/2025

Prolegomena to an Opera: Songs for the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

We are delighted to have welcomed a full house of attentive listeners, who joined together over two nights to celebrate a new chamber song cycle bringing to life the musical traditions of one of Eastern Europe’s oldest academic institutions, founded in 1632.

Curated by Marta Kuzma, created by Sasha Andrusyk and composed by Maxim Kolomiiets, with Olga Prykhodko conducting the Ukho Ensemble Kyiv and soloists Denys Sahirov (Tenor), Ruslan Kirsh (Baritone) and Kostiantyn Lenchyk (Bass). Presented by Faktura 10, a core initiative of RIBBON International.

Staged in the Old Academic Building and featuring scenography by Katya Libkind with Stanislav Turina, the project was presented in dialogue with 'Untitled, 1997/2025' by Jannis Kounellis, which will be closing 1 September, 2025.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this special event.

Video by

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Cultivating the Garden of the Old Academic Building of the Kyiv-Mohyla AcademyFaktura 10, a core initiative of Ribbon In...
17/08/2025

Cultivating the Garden of the Old Academic Building of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

Faktura 10, a core initiative of Ribbon International curated by Marta Kuzma, invited the artist Nina Dyrenko and the arborist Volodymyr Vetrogradskiy to work in cooperation with the plants surrounding the Old Academic Building of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, which date to the seventeenth century. Among maples, lindens, spruces, elderberries, viburnums, cherries, chestnuts, and lilacs stands the “Skovoroda” mulberry—a 186-year-old national monument, delicately pruned and cared for to ensure its future.

On the Academy’s grounds, Dyrenko has reintroduced rare Carpathian bluebells—a native species listed in Ukraine’s Red Data Book—which will bloom each summer and later be transplanted to a protected site within the Academy, outlasting both the exhibition and the building’s restoration.

The project garden is located at the entrance to the building that houses Jannis Kounellis’s Untitled, 1997/2025. Following its de-installation, the flowers will be replanted to the central courtyard of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy to protect them from damage during the ongoing reconstruction of the Old Academic Building. In doing so, they will prolong the memory of the Kounellis project beyond 2025 with each annual summer bloom.

Nina Dyrenko is an artist who works with nature as a researcher, curator, and architect. She is currently focused on studying the impact of Russia’s current war in Ukraine on the country’s natural environment. Dyrenko also leads the environmental education department at the Askania-Nova Biosphere Reserve.

Photos: Vitalii Halanzha, Nina Dyrenko & Kat Oleshko
Estate Jannis Kounellis
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Faktura 10, a core initiative of RIBBON International, and the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theater announce the ...
15/08/2025

Faktura 10, a core initiative of RIBBON International, and the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theater announce the world premiere of GALICIA, a new play written and directed by acclaimed director Richard Maxwell and curated by Marta Kuzma, Artistic Director and Chief Curator of Faktura 10.

Performances:
Friday, August 22–Monday, August 25
Each night @ 19h30
Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theater

GALICIA is a continuation of Federico García Lorca’s seminal play “La Casa de Bernarda Alba” (1936), a tragedy that takes place in a small village in Spain. Lorca’s original play, written in 1936, explores love, family bonds, and the ways in which patriarchal control is enforced through women against other women.

Maxwell moves the narrative forward, imagining the family’s life in the immediate aftermath of death & how personal tragedy is shaped—and often deepened—by political and social upheaval.

Performed in Ukrainian, the play is brought to life by a cast selected from Maxwell’s “Theater for Beginners” workshop, held in Kyiv in March 2025 at the Ivan Franko Theater, and through a nine-week street casting process in collaboration with the creative studio Baby Prod.

The cast Includes: Kseniya Boychenko; Oksana Briukhovetska; Anke Cristodorescu; Nataliia Khodos; Bohdana-Valeriia Korniienko; Dmytro Krashchenko; Alina Lianyha; Yevheniia Nesterova; Maria Noshchenko; Yana Potselui; Oksana Saboldash; Khilyal Tiufekchioglu.

Developed in close collaboration with Kyiv-based architects ФОРМА, the staging transforms the Ivan Franko Theater’s Experimental Stage—marking the first artistic intervention in the space that will become the Stage under the Chimeras.

Entry to the play is free and open to the public, with limited seating. registration via the link in bio
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Уже завтра завершується дедлайн подачі на гранти KEY WORK від .artcenter та RIBBON International.Встигніть податися! Усі...
14/08/2025

Уже завтра завершується дедлайн подачі на гранти KEY WORK від .artcenter та RIBBON International.

Встигніть податися! Усі деталі за посиланням у біо.

Раді представите також журі, яке обиратиме переможців:

Оксана Баршинова () — мистецтвознавиця, кураторка, заступниця генерального директора з експозиційно-виставкової роботи в Національному художньому музеї України (NAMU), Київ;

Ілона Демченко () очолювала грантовий відділ програми «Дім Європи», яку реалізує Goethe-Institut. Має понад 15 років досвіду у сфері культури й мистецтва, з 2022 займається міжнародними виставками для PinchukArtCentre;

Лізавета Герман () — кандидатка мистецтвознавства, кураторка, співзасновниця галереї The Naked Room;

Альона Каравай () — культурна менеджерка, кураторка та есеїстка, співзасновниця проєктного простору «Асортиментна кімната», мистецької резиденції «Хата-Майстерня» в Карпатах та медіа про мистецтво post impreza;

Станіслав Битюцький — дослідник кіно, керівник науково-програмного відділу Національного центру Олександра Довженка. Куратор кінофестивалю «Київський тиждень критики». Володар національної кінопремії «Кіноколо» як режисер та як куратор кінопрограм;

Саша Андрусик () — співзасновниця й головна кураторка агенції класичної та експериментальної музики «УХО»;

Влада Ралко () — художниця, що працює з живописом, графікою та інсталяціями, лауреатка Women In Arts Award.

Подати заявку на участь у грантовій програмі можна через [email protected]
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“We wanted to create something unique for Kharkiv.” — Pairs Skating, the deeply moving duo exhibition by Wolfgang Tillma...
16/07/2025

“We wanted to create something unique for Kharkiv.” — Pairs Skating, the deeply moving duo exhibition by Wolfgang Tillmans & Boris Mikhailov in wartime Ukraine, is featured in the Summer 2025 issue of 032c magazine.

In his essay consisting of interviews with both artists and co-curators Maria Isserlis and Tatiana Kochubinska, Shane Anderson explores the stakes of making art under fire — and the radical hope of doing it anyway.

The exhibition is on view at YermilovCentre through September 28.
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Artist Spotlight: Vasyl YermylovBorn in Kharkiv in 1894, Vasyl Yermylov was a revolutionary Ukrainian artist and designe...
08/07/2025

Artist Spotlight: Vasyl Yermylov

Born in Kharkiv in 1894, Vasyl Yermylov was a revolutionary Ukrainian artist and designer whose bold experimentation helped define the visual language of early Soviet modernism. Yermylov was a key figure of the Ukrainian avant-garde, fusing folk motifs, constructivist geometry, and typographic dynamism into a style he called “constructive-dynamism”.

One of Yermylov’s most striking contributions came in the form of agit-trains: mobile propaganda trains that carried radical art and messaging to rural Soviet regions in the aftermath of the Revolution. These trains were moving canvases, and Yermylov’s designs turned them into travelling theatres of political and aesthetic engagement. His ability to merge bold graphics with architecture and environment embodied the avant-garde’s goal of fusing art and life.

Beyond the rails, Yermylov also designed street installations, public interiors, journals, and typefaces, often working at the intersection of utility and form. But as Soviet cultural policies hardened in the 1930s, Yermylov’s modernist sensibilities were deemed “formalist”. He was pushed to the margins, only returning to public recognition decades later.

His legacy returns to the spotlight at the YermilovCentre, named in his honour, with the Pairs Skating: Wolfgang Tillmans and Boris Mikhailov, and with 'UNTITLED (ANOTHER AGAIN)', Barbara Kruger's agit-train inspired installation making its way through Ukraine until 14 July.


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Vasyl Yermylov, Composition with Capital Letters, 1915, Cover "Avantgarde" magazine, 1929, Untitled (composition in primary colors), 1927
Barbara Kruger, 'UNTITLED (ANOTHER AGAIN)', 2025, by Vitalii Halanzha
Pairs Skating: Wolfgang Tillmans and Boris Mikhailov interior by Oleksandr Osipov & Vlad Nikorchuk





25/06/2025

Coming Soon: Ai Weiwei at Pavilion 13, Kyiv

This autumn, RIBBON International presents a major new installation by Ai Weiwei, 'Three Perfectly Proportioned Spheres and Camouflage Uniforms Painted White', opening 14 September 2025.

Staged inside the multidisciplinary cultural space of Pavilion 13, this new site-specific work marks Ai Weiwei's first commission in Ukraine and grows from Ai Weiwei’s ongoing humanistic and pacifist interest in the experience of conflict — drawing on ideologically charged objects from the past to create art that resonates with the complexities of the present.

Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s 'Divina Proportione,' the work reflects on Enlightenment ideals of rationality — and how those frameworks are coopted in a world shaped by conflict and concealment. As the artist himself states:

"That is the challenge, to build new works relating to what I feel, to me in the past and to the current situation. Art is more metaphysical. You cannot really give every description, but you can always suggest a gesture or attitude or some kind of symbolic meaning, more like a poetic gesture."

Opening: 14 September 2025
On view through: 30 November 2025
Pavilion 13, Kyiv

Commissioned by RIBBON International
In cooperation with and
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Produced, directed and filmed by: Adam Simons
Editor: Becca Luck
Composer: Oleh Shpudeiko





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