In Edenia, a City of the Future

“In Edenia, a City of the Future” was an art exhibition inspired by a Yiddish-language utopian novella of the same name, published by Kalman Zingman in Kharkiv in 1918. Nearly one hundred years later, in 2017, artist Yevgeniy Fiks and curator Larissa Babij invited an international group of contemporary artists to read the novella and create an artwork as if from the museum of the imaginary city of Edenia. The exhibition presented the artists' different visions as an invitation to look at our dreams from various angles, to take note of their colors, intonations, forms and rhythms and was on view at the Yermilov Center in Kharkiv in Spring-Summer 2017.

Zingman's Edenia (a projection of Kharkiv 25 years into the future) is serviced by "airbuses" and fountains that keep the temperature at a comfortable level year-round; it is a place where ethnic communities live side-by-side in peace and harmony. The protagonist of the story, returned to his native city from Palestine, makes a stop in the art museum: "He … looked at the figure sculptures of Kritsenshteyn, Lisitski and Roza Fayngold, then he went to the top level. The door closed behind him, and he looked for a very long time, thought for a long time, and got lost in his ruminations."

“In Edenia, a City of the Future” of 2017 (based on a novella written in a language that has practically disappeared from Ukraine) invites the public to examine the country's multicultural history and its early Soviet dreams/nightmares in light of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War of 2022.

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87058584629?pwd=Z0hETVhJT1RSbXBpMUNvcjNoMm9qUT09

Meeting ID: 870 5858 4629 | Passcode: 502578

View the illustrated slide lecture by artist Yevgeniy Fiks on YouTube (via Roman Khidekel)

Image credits: "In Edenia, a City of the Future, installation view (Photo: Sergei Solonskij)"

  This program is made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Cojeco and Tianaderrah Foundation.