All That's Solid Melts into Air

Engagement installation (microprocessor, ventilator, video camera, screen) | Produced especially for the exhibition "Sense of Safety" / 2024

Yulia Kostereva and Yuriy Kruchak's artistic practice is characterised as participatory art. The artists do not focus on creating objects that can be exhibited in a 'white cube' but consider art as a space and a set of instruments for social interaction and supporting communities. Their work goes beyond individual practices. In 1999, they created the art platform called Open Place, aimed at building links between different social and professional groups along various practices of knowledge.

The artists' positioning as connectors or moderators of social processes through cultural and activist practices, along with their grasp of interdependence, forms the background of the interactive installation, specifically created for the "Sense of Safety" project.

The All That's Solid Melts into Air highlights the interconnectedness of various geographical contexts, expanding Kharkiv's outreach globally and integrating other geographies into Kharkiv. The artwork comprises small rotors placed in cultural institutions worldwide (for example, Arsenal Gallery in Bialystok, Poland, Skövde Art Museum in Sweden, and others). Each rotor is connected to a central large fan in the YermilovCentre, Kharkiv. When someone breathes on a small fan in any partner location, the large Kharkiv ventilator starts spinning. The more small fans are activated globally, the faster the central ventilator rotates. This interactive artwork symbolises the collective effort and solidarity among different communities, showing how individual actions contribute to a larger movement.

The air here provides a metaphor for the invisible connections between different communities and contexts, which are unseen but essential for the creation and maintenance of safety as a collective infrastructure.