Just announced
Art & Exhibitions
Just announced
UNBOXING
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On 28th June we’ll unbox the works by: Yulia Bondar, Yaroslav Futymskyi, INAKSHE, Nikolay Karabinovych, Anna Niykytiuk, Anna Potiomkina and Ksenia Pohrebennyk, Hanna Trofimova, Stanislav Turina. The works will be unboxed by Alona Karavai.
«unboxing» is a conversation and a participatory session exploring radically different perspectives on the war in Ukraine based on a box with seven art objects brought by cultural worker Alona Karavai. Together, we will unpack these art objects, discussing each piece as it emerges from the box and later on creating together an improvised exhibition situation. This is an invitation to a nuanced conversation and a more intimate form of curation—one where all involved work and interpret side-by-side instead of in-front-of. White gloves provided; curiosity required.
“unboxing” explores complex, conflicting, sometimes heavy and sometimes funny experiences of eternal war and crisis time. It deals with migration, broken personal ties and broken life plans, shifted ideologies, vulnerable landscapes and same vulnerable memories, as well as with post-traumatic growth which sometimes cannot keep up with the ongoing pace of happening. At the same time, “unboxing” is an act of imagination — a try to find an autonomous alternative to how we could meet art and each other on eye level. It comes at a time when cultural work is being steadily squeezed out (again) of shrinking physical spaces by a conservative tandem of neoliberal productivity and geopolitical strain. Moving art from its decorative isolation in sterile rooms back to the heart of community consensus and dissensus, we adopt a viral digital format—people watching other people unboxing things. Ultimately, for Ukrainian realities—and far beyond—when artists cannot travel, a simple box still can. And with time, perhaps it will learn to travel entirely on its own without a human to accompany it.
“unboxing” has been developed within the Socially Engaged Arts fellowship with the support of the Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts. The Fellowship is designed and implemented in collaboration with The Audience Agency, Culture Action Europe, and Fitzcarraldo Foundation.
EXHIBITION OPENING:
Friday 28 June 2026
From 14:00 to 18:00
This event is at 571 Oxford Road, RG30 1HL Reading. Public transport is available from Reading town center and Reading station if you are visiting from elsewhere.
Organised by Alona Karavai