20 artists shortlisted for the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2020 / Emilija Škarnulytė: Chambers of Radiance

The PinchukArtCentre presents an exhibition of the 20 artists shortlisted for the sixth edition PinchukArtCentre Prize, a nationwide prize for young Ukrainian artists, and the solo exhibition Chambers of Radiance by Emilija Škarnulytė (Lithuania), the Main Prize Winner of the Future Generation Art Prize 2019.  

The 20 nominees for the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2020 were shortlisted by an independent selection committee from more than 1100 applicants. The shortlist includes: AntiGonna, Katya Вuchatska, Uli Golub, Pavlo Grazhdanskij, Ksenia Hnylytska, Alexandra Kadzevich, Nikolay Karabinovych, Anton Karyuk, Oksana Kazmina, Iryna Kudrya, Larion Lozovoy, Timothy Maxymenko, Elias Parvulesco, Valentina Petrova, Anna Scherbyna, Alina Sokolova, Dmytro Starusiev and the groups: 12345678910 Studio (Evgeniy Obraztsov, Anastasiya Omelich, Mikita Momot), Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Himey, Daniil Revkovskiy and Andriy Rachinskiy.

The artistic approaches of the 20 nominees vary considerably, yet they reflect the vision and thinking of the post-Maidan generation of Ukrainian art. Many of the artists are united by an intensive reflection on social problems and a critical view of archaic power structures. Prominent themes include the value of labor in the post-industrial era, media manipulation that affects political actions both in Ukraine and around the globe, and a celebration of gender identities that stand opposed to physical brutality, which is still a driving force in social processes. Whereas direct activism has been a leading practice, we are starting to see its substitution with gestures that aim to transform the experience and functionality of common urban space.

The winners of the Prize will be announced by the International Jury at the award ceremony in March 2020. The winner of the Main Prize will be automatically included in the shortlist of the Future Generation Art Prize 2021—an international art prize for young artists, established by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation in 2009. Also his/her art will be presented in PinchukArtCentre and as a part of “The Future Generation Art Prize @ Venice 2021” exhibition at the 59th Venice Biennale.

The solo exhibition Chambers of Radiance by Emilija Škarnulytė includes a large-scale video and two lightbox photographs specially produced for the PinchukArtCentre. 

An immersive cinematic environment, Chambers of Radiance is a meditation on the ruins of humanity as seen from a distant future. A snake crawls through nuclear reactors into a burial chamber. Deep-sea mining companies trawl the ocean floor amid coccolithophore plankton sinking to the bottom, carrying carbon with it. Jellyfish dance through the dark waters. A mirrored black liquid ceiling reflects our actions back to us. A future beyond reckoning drifts into view, where our advanced technology has become wreckage at the bottom of the ocean. In a theatre resembling an Etruscan tomb, we witness it all caught in a cycle of eternal return from life to death to rebirth. 

In “Chambers of Radiance”, Škarnulytė dreams through post-human mythologies imagined through the modes and materials of contemporary science. Sunk into the sea and beyond into underworlds, Škarnulytė dives into deep time, from the cosmic and geologic to the ecological and political, showing us secret places and the otherwise invisible structures that hide there.

Emilija Škarnulytė received the Main Prize of the fifth Future Generation Art Prize for her work t1⁄2, which stemmed from deep and extensive research, which she translated in a coherent and confident way. Her art was presented as a part of “The Future Generation Art Prize @ Venice 2019” exhibition—an official Collateral Event of the 58th Venice Biennale organised by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and the PinchukArtCentre.

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