Ukrainian artist Anton Tkachenko - in Graz since 2023 - creates landscapes for the foyer in which mountains, bridges, rows of houses, but also plants, figures and blooming flowers are intertwined: Hope, vision or just more shadows of Sisyphean attempts at resistance?
For the center of the work, above the entrance to the historic iron house, the artist and trained architect has created a wall hanging. Using layers of plastic sheets, fabrics and threads found in the Kunsthaus warehouse, in Caritas stores, Open Bookshelves and elsewhere, he has created a translucent image that is reminiscent of fine tapestries and, in its pale blue color scheme, also of early 20th Century wall frescoes. A mountain under clouds appears in the background. In front of it is a bridge and, at the very front edge of the picture, flowering shrubs rising high and pointed. An expressively blazing red star hovers above everything at the upper edge of the picture - a recurring element in Tkachenko's paintings, is now more reminiscent of a threatening explosion. The roots of the plants extend as woollen threads to the second part of the work - a 7-metre-long montage of images on cardboard placed on the curve of the Kunsthaus, showing a wobbling, either rising or sinking skyline of Graz above a dark, swirling earth crust. The third element below the skyline is a montage of dynamized elements placed directly on the wall: Figures, next to a portal-like picture opening, horizontal planting sticks aiming at a giant-like flower, the inside of which consists of a metal flower often used on Ukrainian fences. Tkachenko seems to be saying that no matter how much man resists, adorns or supports himself, we remain as fragile as the flowers.
On April 4, 2025, drones target a residential area with a playground in the Ukrainian town of Kryvyi Rih. 19 children and adults die. Senselessly, violently and cruelly, their blood soaks the earth from which everything grows.
