Photo © Andrei Stseburaka, courtesy of the YermilovCentre 
Photo © Andrei Stseburaka, courtesy of the YermilovCentre 
Photo © Andrei Stseburaka, courtesy of the YermilovCentre 
Photo © Andrei Stseburaka, courtesy of the YermilovCentre 
Photo © Oleksandr Osipov, courtesy of the YermilovCentre
Jump Up!
installation / 2022 / ongoing
As a Kurdish born in the civil-war-ravaged city of Diyarbakir, the artist Ahmet Öğüt's approach focuses on rethinking art as a tool to create change in a situation of repression and oppression. He conceptualises art as a political and social situation rather than as an object, shifting his gaze from Western European hegemony. His works Jump Up! and Safe Return of the Evacuated also continue to reimagine the possibilities of art as a socio-political practice.
As a gesture of care and solidarity, Ahmet Öğüt for the Safe Return of the Evacuated makes exact copies of three pieces created by significant Ukrainian artists and public figures - Alla Horska, Zoya Lerman, Serhiy Zhadan - whose political and artistic positions were inextricably connected to each other. The practice of these artists is important for rethinking the history of art, overcoming Western European centrality, and reinterpreting what a work of art is and can be. For instance, Alla Horska was a central figure in the Ukrainian underground and human rights movement of the 1960s, and Serhiy Zhadan is a poet and political figure since 2004 the Orange Revolution, he also was one of the organisers of the first big event - a rock concert that took place in the YermilovCentre after the full-scale invasion that started the revival of public cultural events in the city.
This simple gesture of creating copies of the artworks is particularly important given that most of the art collections have been evacuated from Kharkiv. This act weaves together both the sorrow that collections can be evacuated but people cannot, and the concern that these works are not available for public viewing by the people of Kharkiv. Art is far more than just a decorative element, it can be the glue of collectivity, emphasising the fact that replicas of these three works made by Ahmet Öğüt will remain at the YermilovCentre until the war is over and the original pieces return home.