Media contacts
Lesia Dunets, communication manager of Jam Factory Art Center
[email protected]
JAM FACTORY: A NEW ART CENTER FOR UKRAINE OPENS IN THE MIDST OF WAR
On 18 November 2023, Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv officially opened its doors to the public. Housed in a former industrial building first used as distillery and later as a fruit bottling plant, Jam Factory Art Center will stage exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, as well as host new productions in performative arts and music in a specially designed space.
The idea of establishing a new cultural centre in Lviv took root in 2015, when philanthropist and historian Dr. Harald Binder decided to support the development of Jam Factory Art Center as a center for contemporary art. The initiative also saw an opportunity to regenerate Lviv’s industrial building and its neighborhood into a vibrant public space. After extensive research and preparation, significant funding was provided to go ahead.
Jam Factory Art Center is located in the district of Pidzamche, north of central Lviv, once a thriving industrial area. The building, with its distinctive crenellations and neo-gothic façade, was commissioned by the Jewish entrepreneur Josef Kronik in 1872. It operated as a successful distillery until the Second World War, which the Kronik family, tragically, did not survive. Post war, the factory was importing wines from Moldova and other parts of the USSR until, in 1970, it was converted into a plant for bottling fruit and vegetables. It ceased production in the 1990s. From 2008 the building was used on an ad hoc basis for cultural initiatives such as the Contemporary Art Week, a theatre festival, and other artistic and community engaged activities.
Following the purchase of the buildings in 2015, the Austrian architectural firm of Stefan Rindler was selected to restore and re-model the former building in collaboration with the Ukrainian office AVR. To create a multidisciplinary art centre as a space for critical reflection through culture was the concept from the beginning. Institutions of this kind which would also serve as a point of connection between Ukraine and the wider world are still rare in the country. The structural composition of the complex consisting of six separate buildings reflects these ambitions. Grouped around an open courtyard and an extended alley, Jam Factory Art Center is built as a continuous, flexible space, able to accommodate performance, installation, and discussions. On the larger territory the site of a former synagogue has been marked out, a reminder, rather than an erasure, of Ukraine’s turbulent past.
Exhibition ‘In Memory of the One Who Keeps the Memory’ opens at Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv
Jam Factory Art Center, along with curators Lizaveta German and Maria Lanko, announce the new exhibition “In Memory of the One Who Keeps the Memory.” Running from May 11 to September 8 2024, it showcases artworks from Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, created between the 1950s and 2024.
Key topics that unfold in the exhibition space designed by Kseniia Bilyk are:
Preservation and reproduction of memory, including the memory of the art of the past, as an artistic method.
A critical examination of the hierarchical and political constructions of gender, national, and genre identities within repressive art systems of the past (particularly the Soviet one).
Reflections on displaced identities, hidden lives, and the (artistic) means of bringing them back to the public space.
The prologue of the research and the heart of the exhibition’s narrative is the life and creative practice of Ukrainian artist Alina Lamakh (1925–2020), primarily known as the wife of Valerii Lamakh, a prominent monumental artist and key figure of the Sixtiers generation. The (un)told story of Alina Lamakh prompted contemplation on key questions for the upcoming exhibition: Can we regard the practice of preserving art that is not our own as an independent artistic project? Can dedication to continuing someone else’s interrupted practice serve as an alternative to creating something new, as typically demanded by the contemporary art industry?
“We came up with the concept and started working on the exhibition four years ago, and it has remained virtually unchanged. Its narratives now seem only more relevant to us: the rediscovery of certain episodes of Ukrainian art, a new perspective on marginalized aspects and figures of its history, as well as a dialogue with consonant but little-known practices of artists from other countries,” comment Lizaveta German and Maria Lanko.
A more detailed concept of the exhibition can be found here.
The represented artists are Alina Lamakh, Valerii Lamakh, Tereza Barabash, Mykhaylo Barabash, Library of Visual Phenomena (Olga Gaidash, Eugene Shimalsky), Ksenіia Bilyk, Kateryna Bilokur, Geta Brătescu, Anna Daučíková, Lucy Ivanova, Saodat Ismailova, Gulnara Kasmalieva and Muratbek Djumaliev, Alevtina Kakhidze, Volodymyr Kuznetsov, Pavlo Makov, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Ada Rybachuk and Volodymyr Melnychenko (ARVM), Anastasiia Stefaniuk, Stas Turina, Bozhena Chagarova, Mark Chehodaiev.
Lizaveta German and Maria Lanko are independent curators, researchers, and co-founders of The Naked Room Gallery (Kyiv). Since 2014, they have been working as a curatorial team. They are also the co-founders of the Ukrainian Emergency Art Fund. The duo has organized more than 30 exhibitions and collaborated with leading art institutions in Ukraine, including the National Art Museum of Ukraine, the Art Arsenal, the Goethe-Institut, the British Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ukrainian Institute.
Press ReleaseHeads of the institution
Harald Binder, the founder
Swiss historian, Ph.D. in history and economics from the University of Bern. His research focuses on the history of Central and Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries, Habsburg Galicia, urban history, media, and the public sphere in the transition to modernity. As an entrepreneur and cultural patron, he founded the Center for Urban History (2004), Harald Binder Cultural Enterprises (2015), and the Jam Factory Art Center (2017).
“I was encouraged to follow up on my first initiative, the urban research centre, after I had experienced what potential lies in Ukraine and its people. Just as much as science the arts constitute an important medium of profound reflection for a society, especially in times of war.”
Bozhena Pelenska, Program and Executive Director
Bozhena is responsible for the Art Center’s development strategy, program development, management, and institutional development. She developed the concept and program activities of the Art Center. She studied Cultural Studies, Art History, Philosophy and Art Management. She has participated in international programs of cultural management, cultural diplomacy and exchange programs. She graduated from the University of Lviv and the University of Ottawa with a degree in Cultural Studies. She is currently a graduate student at the DeVos Institute of Arts Management, University of Maryland.
“My big aspiration was to create a strong art organization that would become a vivid place in the city and provide opportunities for Ukrainian artists and art professionals to grow and become visible on the Ukrainian and International artistic map. It was my dream to bring to our developing civil society an important pillar – a sustainable art institution. These days it plays an important role supporting and developing culture during war times”
Bozhena together with her co-director and head of finance and administration, Tetiana Fedoruk, lead a team of further 17 staff members augmented by project-based collaborators.
Tetiana Fedoruk, Operations and Executive Director
Tetiana is responsible for the strategic development and implementation of the Center’s business model. She is also responsible for financial and management accounting, operational processes, and team management. Tetiana provided financial support for approximately 100 grant projects as CFO of the Center for Urban History. She holds ACCA Diploma in International Financial Reporting (2021) and Financial Accounting Managerial Decision Making (2022) from DePaul University. She is currently a student on the Key Executive MBA program at the UCU Business School.
Supervisory Board Members
Harald Binder (Chair);
Vasyl Kosiv, head of the Academy of Arts, Lviv;
Olesya Khromeychuk, director of the Ukrainian Institute, London.
Media about us
Logos
Exhibition posters
Space Visualization
Old Factory Before Revitalization
Revitalization Process
Current Photos After Revitalization
Our Projects
