mark chehodaiev
welcome to khandwala: the show by the winner of young european artist trieste contemporanea award 2023
Opening on Friday 26 April 2024 at 6pm
dialogue with the artist Mark Chehodaiev, the President of Comunità di Sant’Egidio FVG Paolo Parisini, the founding member of Linea d’Ombra association Francesco Cibati and the team of No Name Kitchen Trieste organization
curated by Alice Debianchi
Mark Chehodaiev, Welcome to Khandwala, 2024, photo by Mark Chehodaiev
Studio Tommaseo is pleased to present Welcome to Khandwala, a solo show by Mark Chehodaiev winner of the Young European Artist Trieste Contemporanea Award 2023. The exhibition, curated by Alice Debianchi, displays an inedited project that reflects the current situation of the Trieste Silos. The artworks are a restitution of a journey that the artist conducted to Khandwala – Silos emblem – a parallel city located near the Porto Vecchio of Trieste and populated by over two hundred inhabitants.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue which will be presented later including images of the artworks installed in the Trieste space. The exhibition Welcome to Khandwala presents a series of souvenirs that Chehodaiev created after entering the Silos in Trieste, physical pieces of memories produced to safeguard the memory of the site and to tell of its transformation into a place of refuge. Walking among the tents and the garbage, the young Ukrainian artist captured the explored space with his camera, fusing his memories into small and precious memorabilia. In the Pashto language – Iranian language spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan – “khandwala” means “broken house” or “ruined house”, but in Trieste it is the point of arrival for migrants who run across the Balkan route: starting from Asia and moving overland on a long and hostile trek between Greece, Albania, Croatia and Slovenia arrive in Trieste, a crossroads and starting point toward other European countries. Currently over two hundred people live in Khandwala in a huge, ruined building without electricity and running water.
At the finissage of the exhibition on 8 June 2024 from 5pm to 8pm Trieste Contemporanea will organize a food, clothing, and medicine collection together with Comunità di Sant’Egidio FVG, Linea d’Ombra association and No Name Kitchen Trieste organization who actively support the migrants in Trieste along the Balkan route. Donors will receive one of Mark Chehodaiev’s souvenirs as a gift (until sold out) by registering through an online form which will soon be published, together with the list of items that can be donated, on the Trieste Contemporanea website.
The focus of Chehodaiev’s work revolves around the concept of capturing and preserving moments. In his artistic practice he uses a variety of mediums, including photography, installation, and site-specific interventions. His main interest lies in how the broader context coexist with personal experience and memory. Specific location are typically the starting point and source of inspiration for his projects, whether it’s his own room, a street, or a hotel in the Alpen. His working process involves observing, walking and exploring the sites.
Mark Chehodaiev (Kyiv, UA, 1997) lives and works in Vienna. From 2014 to 2020 he studied scenography and cinematography at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture of Kyiv. After graduation he has been working in the filmmaking industry as a product designer for commercials and films. In 2019 Chehodaiev finished a contemporary art course at Kyiv Academy of Media Arts and started his artistic practice. In 2021 he moved to Vienna to specialize in site-specific art at Die Angewandte, University of Applied Arts.
The Young European Artist Trieste Contemporanea Award is awarded, since 1999, every two years to artists under the age of thirty from Central and Eastern Europe whose research has distinguished itself for its particular significance. The award gives the artist the opportunity to conceive an unprecedented exhibition project as well as to document it with a publication.
Go to the previous editions of YEATC Award.
