Biography
Mykola Ridnyi was born 1985 in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Currently he lives and works in Berlin where he holds a guest professorship for multimedia art in the Berlin University of the Arts.
He graduated from Kharkiv National Academy of Design and Arts in 2008, where he studied sculpture.
Since 2005, he has been a founding member of the SOSka group, an art collective based in Kharkiv. The same year he cofounded the SOSka gallery-lab, an artist-run-space in Kharkiv. Under Ridnyi's lead, the gallery-lab was instrumental in the developing the artistic scene in the region before it was closed in 2012.
Starting from his curatorial project Armed and Dangerous (2017 – 2021), Ridnyi begone to develop a platform for collaboration between Ukrainian moving image artists and filmmakers. In 2022 he curated several screening programs of Ukrainian film and video art in DAAD gallery in Berlin, MAXXI Rome, Museum Folkwang Essen, National Gallery in Sofia.
Ridnyi works across media ranging from early collective actions in public space to the amalgam of site-specific installations. Photography and moving image constitute the current focus of his practice. In recent films and images, he experiments with nonlinear montage, collage of documentary and fiction. His way of reflection social and political reality draws on the contrast between fragility and resilience of individual stories and collective histories.
Mykola Ridnyi in Kharkiv, 2017. Photo © Daniil Revkovskyi
Residencies and Fellowships
2022 / 2023 — Berlin Artistic Research Grant Programme of the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe. DE
2022 – residency program of the Fondazione la Quadrienale di Roma. IT
2021 — Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen fellowship program. Innsbruck. AT
2019 — Junge Akademie scholarship, Akademie der Künste Berlin, DE | Villa Serpentara, residency program, Olevano Romano, IT
2017 / 2018 — IASPIS residency program. Stockholm. SE
2015 — Gaude Polonia, scholarship program of the Minister of culture of Poland | resident of the East of Art foundation. Krakow. PL
2014 — Künste und Medien Stipendium des Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD for short residencies. Berlin. DE
2011 – Sommerakademie Centrum Paul Klee. Bern. CH
2010 – CEC ArtsLink fellowship. Santa Fe Art Institute. USA
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2023 - Untitled. Secession. Vienna. AT
2023 – The Battle over Mazepa. Pushkin house, London / John Hansard gallery, Southampton. GB
2021 – Excavations From the Future. Voloshyn Gallery. Kyiv. UA
2019 – Wolf in a Sack. Arsenal City Gallery. Bialystok. PL
2018 – Facing the Wall. Labirynt City Gallery. Lublin, PL
2016 — Under suspicion. Edel Assanti. London, GB
2016 — Forecast for Yesterday. Blockhaus DY10. Nantes. FR
2015 — Clenched Staring Eyes. Art Agenda Nova. Krakow, PL
2014 – Shelter. Visual Culture Research Center. Kyiv, UA
2012 – Labor Circle. CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Project room. Warsaw, PL
Selected Duo Exhibitions
2021 – Horses’ Traces. Together with Clemens von Wedemeyer. Bakhmut Museum of Local History. UA
2016 — Hang zum Konflikt. Together with Anna Witt. Kunstraum Munchen. DE
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 – Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories. Ukrainian Art 1912 – 2023. Albertinum, SKD. Dresden, DE / Museum de Fundatie. Zwolle, NL
2023 - To Watch the War: The Moving Image Amidst the Invasion of Ukraine (2014 – 2023). BAK. Utrecht, NL
2023 – Global Spotlight: Video Art from Ukraine. Museum of contemporary art Arlington. VA, US
2023 – Fruits of Wrath. Haus am Lützowplatz (HaL). Berlin. DE
2022 – Survival Kit 13. Latvian Center for contemporary art. Riga. LV
2022 — A War in the Distance. Steirischer Herbst festival in cooperation with Neue Galerie Graz / Universalmuseum Joanneum. Graz. AT
2022 – Extremely Normal. Fotograf festival. Prague, CZ
2022 – Transition. LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur. Munster. DE
2022 – Material Nation. Urania Berlin. DE
2022 – What Matters. Akademie der Künste Berlin. DE
2022 – Tangled Hierarchy. John Hansard gallery, University of Southampton. GB
2022 — Tangled Hierarchy 2. TKM Warehouse, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. Kochi, IN
2022 – Refinerymonastery. 20-th Pancevo biennial. RS
2021 — Transgressions of the Real. Kunstpavillion. Innsbruck, AT
2020 — The Hotel, the Sanatorium, the Pension and Their Refugee's Rooms - Kyiv Pavillion of the Tbilisi Architecture biennial. GEO / UA
2019 — After Leaving / Before Arriving. 12-th Kaunas Biennale. LT
2019 — Picture This. Selected Pasts, Subverted Facts. Budapest Gallery. HU
2019 — Never Again. Art Against War and Fascism in 20-th and 21-st Centuries. Warsaw Museum of Modern Art. PL
2019 — Tale of Novorossiya. Arsenal City Gallery. Poznan. PL
2018 — Restless Monuments. Zilberman gallery. Istanbul. TR
2018 — Neighbors. Warsaw Under Construction 10. Cepelia Pavillion. Warsaw. PL
2017 — The Image of War. Bonniers konsthall. Stockholm. SE
2017 — If Seeing is Believing. Fullersta Gard. Stockholm. SE
2017 — It Won’t Be Long, Comrades! Framer Framed. Amsterdam. NL
2017 — Your Country Doesn't Exist. Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. Rijeka. HR
2016 — Photography Today: Distant Realities. Pinakothek der Moderne. Munich. DE
2016 — Sentsov’s Camera. GfZK - Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig. DE
2016 — Universal Hospitality. Into the City / Wiener Festwochen. Vienna. AT
2015 — Politics of Form. GfZK - Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig. DE
2015 — All the World's Futures. Main exhibition of the 56-th Venice biennale for contemporary art. IT
2015 — Hope. National Pavilion of Ukraine at the 56-th Venice biennale for contemporary art. IT
2015 — The School of Kyiv – Kyiv biennial. The House of Clothes. Kyiv. UA
2015 — Phone Calls from the Cemetery and Other Stories. Academy of the Arts of the World. Cologne. DE
2014 — Through Maidan and Beyond. Architekturzentrum Wien. Vienna. AT
2014 — Sister Europe. Kunstraum Lakeside. Klagenfurt. AT
2014 — The Ukrainians. daad galerie, Berlin, DE
2013 — Global Activism. ZKM - Centre for Art and Media. Karsruhe. DE
2013 — The Monument to a Monument. National Pavillion of Ukraine at the 55-th Venice Biennial for Contemporary Art. IT
2013 — Ukrainian News. CCA Ujazdowski Castle. Warsaw, PL
2012 — The Best Of Times, The Worst Of Times… Arsenale - 1St Kyiv biennial for contemporary art. Kyiv
2011 — The Global Contemporary. Art Worlds After 1989. ZKM - Centre for art and media. Karlsruhe. DE (as a member of SOSka group)
2010 — Intercool 3.0. HMKV / Dortmunder U. Dortmund. DE (as a member of SOSka group)
2009 — Wakefield Meadows. Pavilion UniCredit. Bucharest. RO (as a member of SOSka group)
2008 — Grabbing at Straws. Studio Guenzani. Milan. IT (as a member of SOSka group)
2007 — Communities. Young Ukrainian Art. Gallery City Arsenal. Bialystok. PL
2006 — Generations U&A. PinchukArtCentre. Kyiv. UA
2006 — Team Colors. F.A.I.T. Gallery. Krakow. PL
2005 – Artists of SOSka. SOSka gallery-lab. Kharkiv. UA
Selected Film Festivals and Screenings
2022 – Post-MoMA online platform, E-flux screening room, New York, US; Institute for contemporary art, London, GB; Castello di Rivoli, Turin, IT; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SE; Haus der Kunste, Munchen, DE; Podium, Oslo, NO; Plato, Ostrava, CZ; Kunstlerhaus Bethanien – Window display, Berlin, DE
2020 — 24-th Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterhur - The Short Film Festival of Switzerland. SUI
2020 — 11-th Odessa International Film festival, 49-th Molodist Kyiv International Film festival. UA
2019 — Transmediale. Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Berlin. DE; Creative Time Summit. The Cooper Union. New York, US
2018 — 35-th Kassel Documentary Film festival. DE
Selected Curatorial Projects
2023 – Taking About Myself? Talking About You. Voloshy gallery, Kyiv, UA / DAAD gallery, Berlin, DE / Stadtkino, Vienna, AT
2022 / 2023 – Chain Reaction. Ukrainian Film and Video. Co-curated with Alessandra Troncone. MAXXI - Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, IT / Kunsthalle Bratislava, SK
2022 – Film of Emergency. Ukrainian Experimental Film and Video Art. National Gallery, Sofia, BG / Olomouc Art Museum, CZ / Kunstraum Munchen, DE
2022 – Visions of Ukraine. A Moving Image Selection. Museum Volkwang, Essen, DE
2019 – Armed and Dangerous. Izolyatsia – Center for Culture Initiatives, Kyiv / CCA Yermilov Centre, Kharkiv, UA
2014 – After the Victory. CCA Yermilov Centre, Kharkiv, UA
Selected Monographies and Catalogues
2023 – Mykola Ridnyi. Secession. Language: English, German. 80 pages. ISBN 9783753305240. Verlag der Buchhandlung Walter and Franz König, Cologne
2019 — Mykola Ridnyi. Wolf in a Sack, exhibition catalogue. Language: Polish, English. 54 pages. ISBN 9788366262027. Arsenal City Gallery, Bialystok
2018 — Mykola Ridnyi. Facing the Wall, exhibition catalogue. Language: Polish, English, Ukrainian. 152 pages. ISBN 9788364588846. Labirynt City Gallery, Lublin
2014 — Blind Spot. Mykola Ridnyi & Serhiy Zhadan. Language: German, English, Ukrainian, Russian. 47 pages. ISBN 9783893571291. Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD
Temporary Works in Public Space
2023 – Raging Bull. Alboinplatz. Berlin-Schoenberg. In a frame of the project Restless Monuments. DE
2019 – Lost Baggage. Kaunas train station. Special commission of the 12-thKaunas biennale. LT
2015 – In Pieces. Billboards in public space, Krakow, PL. Special commission of the ArtBoom festival.
2014 – Blind Spot. Housing front of Kunsthaus Kule, Berlin, DE. Produced with DAAD Artist-in-Berlin program
2013 – Wrong Connection. Lokietka square, Lublin, PL. Special commission of the Open City festival.
2012 – Zero. Memorial plaque. Housing front of Museum of Business and Philanthropy, Moscow, RU. Produced with V-A-C foundation.
2009 – The Authorities. Esplanada square, Perm, RU. Produced in a frame of the Public art program of the Museum for contemporary art PERMM.
Selected Public Collections
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
Neuer Berliner Kunstverein
Ludwig Museum Budapest
Warsaw Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Art in Lodz
Arsenal City Gallery, Bialystok