Thursday 5th of June - Mark your calendars!
Welcome to the double exhibition opening with YELENA YEMCHUK (Ukraine / US) + MARK LECKEY (UK), with sound system by TIM BIRD (NO/UK), artist talk & afterparty at Sukkerbiten Bar with Djs - Simon Songhurst (UK) & Hugh_Mane (UK), playing Northern Soul to Post-Rave - on Vinyl from 7 PM-midnight. Free Admission!
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The summer exhibition presents two art projects created several decades apart, yet sharing many similarities. In the outdoor atrium, ‘Odesa’ by Ukrainian photographer Yelena Yemchuk is presented, based on the sold-out book of the same name (GOST Books, 2022). Photographed during a time of increasing waves of protests and attacks, the portrait series of Odesa’s rebellious youth is both a powerful documentation of Ukraine’s transition to war and a visual ode to the city.
Inside the Project Space, Mark Leckey’s 1999 seminal video montage ‘Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore’ is screened with a custom-made sound system by Tim Bird. Using archival footage from British dance floors to depict the underground club scene in the UK from the 1970s to the early 90s, ‘Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore' is set against a backdrop of cultural, social, political, and economic turmoil. Both Yemchuk and Leckey resonate with youth culture’s power to construct political narratives, offering a deeper, more universal understanding of both history and place.
YELENA YEMCHUK - ODESA
"In 1980 my parents told me we were immigrating to America. I wasn’t allowed to talk about it with anyone outside the family. We were going beyond the Iron Curtain—saying goodbye meant we were never allowed to return. I understood enough to know I’d never see anyone there again: not my friends, not my cousins, not my great love—my grandmother Shura. We left in 1981 and my heart broke. That was the end of my childhood.
Ten years later, perestroika surprised us all. Ukraine announced its independence, and we were finally allowed to visit. The chaos of a new nation greeted me, but I didn’t care because I was so grateful to see my family. By 1996, I was making regular trips to Kyiv. Spending my days taking pictures, my evenings with my grandmother. The country was in the crazy throes of growing pains and identity crisis. It was from this time and place that my photographic language and ideas were born.
In 2015 I finally made it back to Odesa. The year before, Russia had invaded and subsequently annexed Crimea. There was fighting on the Eastern border of Ukraine and I went to take pictures of the sixteen and seventeen-year- old boys and girls at the Odesa Military Academy. I wanted to document the faces of these children going off to fight, but I quickly felt like the faces needed more context. So, I began to shoot everything. This work is that story.
For me, Odesa is both nostalgic and new. Whereas Kyiv holds both my happy childhood and the trauma of leaving; Odesa is entirely romantic. My soul feels vivid there. My ability to see expands, dilates. Odesa, my dream city."
MARK LECKEY - FIORUCCI MADE ME HARDCORE
1999, Video (15 minutes)
Mark Leckey’s landmark video artwork Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore blends found footage from television, amateur video recordings, and club promotional tapes with personal nostalgia and social commentary to document the evolution of British youth subcultures.
Specifically focusing on the scenes from the 1970s to the early 1990s, Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore is divided roughly into three parts: the Northern Soul dance scene of working-class clubs in the 1970s, the Casuals culture of fashion-conscious football fans in the 1980s and the underground dance parties and ecstasy-fuelled euphoria of the Rave culture of the 1990’s.
Evoking both the intensity and the transience of youth culture, Leckey captures the spirit and emotional resonance of these eras, mixing nostalgia with melancholy.
Leckey often presents Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore alongside a custom-built sound system, which he treats not just as audio equipment but as an integral sculptural and performative element of the work. For the installation at Sukkerbiten, Oslo-based craftsman/musicologist Tim Bird has custom-built his own speaker stack titled Windrush Baby to accompany the film, inspired by Jamaican sound system culture and UK rave culture. These stacks resemble the kinds used at free parties, club nights, and carnivals, highlighting the fusion of different cultural influences within British youth culture.
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Afterparty at Sukkerbiten Bar, with DJs - Simon Songhurst (UK) & Hugh_Mane (UK), playing Northern Soul to Post-Rave - on Vinyl from 7 PM.
Free admission and all welcome!
The exhibition is generously supported by Oslo kommune, Fritt Ord, Preus museum and Hav Eiendom.
Also check out other Exhibitions in Oslo, Arts events in Oslo, Entertainment events in Oslo.
