MEDPUNKT to be opened at IZOLYATSIA

IZOLYATSIA is continuing to reinhabit the industrial structures of a former insulation materials factory by gradually integrating them into the art-centre’s cultural operations. On 20 April, 2012, IZOLYATSIA opens a new exhibition space MEDPUNKT which will serve as an experimental curatorial platform for young Ukrainian artists.

Reconstruction at IZOLYATSIA presupposes considerable preservation of the existing industrial architecture and design. Through rehabilitating, as opposed to tearing down and rebuilding, the reconstruction process aims to incorporate the history of the site on both visual and verbal levels. The industrial constructions are refurbished with due regard to their original function and their former names are retained to pay tribute to the factory’s past. The name of the arts foundation itself - IZOLYATSIA- is inherited from the factory and remains a direct reference to the history of the space, which is now attaining a new role and mission. Following the same logic, the old names of various spaces are preserved and made to serve new ends. MEDPUNKT used to be a medical station where factory workers would receive initial and sometimes urgent medical treatment, hence the highly symbolic significance of the new exhibition space’s name.

MEDPUNKT remains a place for first diagnosis and emergency treatment. Just like initial medical intrusions, exhibitions within this space reveal symptoms and locate existing wounds on the cultural and social body of the Ukrainian society. Lasting from two to three months, MEDPUNKT projects are akin to ultrasound and X-ray: their aim is highlighting as opposed to providing complex rehabilitation of diagnosed issues. Concise curatorial statements will reveal zones requiring immediate reaction and more elaborate treatments, thus paving path for further projects at IZOLYATSIA and more generally amongst other Ukrainian social and cultural actors.