Kiev’s Izolyatsia presents “The Presence of Absence, or the Catastrophe Theory”

Kiev-based cultural platform Izolyatsia presents The Presence of Absence, or the Catastrophe Theory, opening tomorrow.

Curated by Cathryn Drake, the exhibition brings together three artists from Albania, Greece, and Turkey (Leonard Qylafi, Petros Efstathiadis, and Ali Kazma) to present sixteen videos and two photo series, in addition to an installation created by Petros Efstathiadis.

The featured artists hail from states formerly united by the Ottoman Empire that have since embarked upon vastly different trajectories. The exhibition’s organisers believe that the directions taken by these countries reflect the connections and ruptures that transcend the artificial constructs of political entities, exemplified by the current European refugee crisis and continuing plight in the Middle East and Ukraine.

Izolyatsia is a not-for-profit, non-governmental platform for contemporary culture that was founded in 2010 in Donetsk and is now based in Kiev. On 9 June 2014, the Isolyatsia complex in Donetsk was seized by the militia of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic”.

The Presence of Absence, or the Catastrophe Theory will run from 19 May – 19 June. More information can be found here.