Katerina Gaidamaka
youngblood expoKABK Den Haag
Post Soviet aesthetics in Lar’ok
(How much the definition is in the eye of beholder, and how much the perception is determined by existing stereotypes)
“The new East in contemporary visual culture is not a reflection of a real space but more a multi-layered myth.” Nowadays East is as another world to explore new aesthetes to toy with as nowhere else can we find such a collision of the West and the East. The Internet is full of slumming fascination on “ugly” eastern aesthetics, while for me as a Ukrainian it is part of our history and context. Why is there a certain aesthetic attached to the new East and why does it suddenly seem so attractive? I am answering these questions by visualizing the context behind so-called “post-soviet aesthetics” functioning as a satirical tour on identity and cultural swapping.