Artist

Olexa Furdiyak

Kollina

2013, metal, welding. Courtesy of the artist

BACK TO THE EXHIBITION

Kollina is part of a series of works made by Olexa Furdiyak which are dedicated to the universal virtues of humanity. Kollina in Ukrainian language means knee, it is a metaphor that accompanies the image. The author, trying to explain the creation of such types of metaphors, is referring here to the process of acquiring a noble title and how the person bowed his knee in front of Her Majesty Justice. “This is the bowed knee of a free man in the pursuit of justice. Openness and certainty are traits inherent in free people. And only if a person is aware that he is free he can be open and purposeful. This independence and freedom are the primacy of human existence” said Furdiyak. On 22nd April, during the opening of the Venice Biennale Arte, the sculpture Kollina was in Venice as a travelling exhibit on the water.

Olexa Furdiyak (1962, Skalat, Ukraine) lives and works in Lviv, Ukraine. His artistic practice is not limited to one medium. The inner idea becomes the most important element and the choice of the medium is subordinated to it. Furdiyak works with painting, photography and video, and some of his performances and happenings in the 1990s have a place in the history of Ukrainian contemporary art. Recently, the author pays a lot of attention to volume and visible structures.