Lesia Vasylchenko’s solo exhibition ’Chronosphere’
09.05.-06.07.2025. 11.00-18.00The speculative notion of a “chronosphere” is the conceptual framework of Lesia Vasylchenko's first solo exhibition in Riga. Chronosphere, a constellation of interconnected works, explores the intricate interplay of temporal scales, ranging from the microtemporal, such as remote sensing of planetary surfaces and computational cycles, to the macrotemporal, including ecological trauma and the nuclear age. The Chronosphere exhibition extends its exploration of time to the context of the current war in Ukraine. The exhibition uncovers how war disrupts, ruptures, intersects with and reshapes the temporal fabric of human and more-than-human existence, embedding itself in personal and collective time.
Taking as a starting point Eduard Suess’s concept of Earth’s envelopes and Volodymyr Vernadsky’s notion of the Noosphere – the “sphere of human thought” – the Chronosphere represents an additional layer where time itself becomes a medium of interaction. Historical narratives, cultural artefacts and the scars of systemic inequities form the foundation of the now, while technologically predicted futures unfold as a response to these legacies.
The Chronosphere encapsulates the dynamic interactions between scales of time, highlighting how individual experiences are interwoven with planetary infrastructures and visionary technologies. It builds on Vasylchenko’s call to rethink the temporal dimensions of contemporary existence, urging us to move beyond linear narratives and into a realm of interconnected and simultaneous temporalities. It invites viewers to navigate the continuum of temporalities, uncovering the intimate and often invisible threads that bind us to one another and the world around us.
Lesia Vasylchenko (UA/NO) works across a range of media, including video, photography, installation and curation. In her research-based practice, Vasylchenko explores encounters between visual cultures, media technologies and chronopolitics. She is the founder of STRUKTURA. Time, a cross-disciplinary initiative for research and practice within the framework of visual arts, media archaeology, literature and philosophy. She holds a degree in journalism from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and in Fine Arts from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Vasylchenko has recently exhibited at the Pochen Biennial for Multimedia Art (Ex Oriente Ignis), the Munch Museum’s Triennale (The Machine Is Us), and the Henie Onstad Triennale for Photography and New Media (New Visions). She was the recipient of the Sandefjord Kunstforenings Art Prize in 2023 (Norway) and has been nominated for the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2025. Her work is part of the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma/Finnish National Gallery in Helsinki, Finland.
Participant: Lesia Vasylchenko (UA/NO)
Curators: Inga Brūvere (LV), Marie Sjøvold (NO)
Partners: Riga State City Council, State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OKA), Riga Art Week, Arctic Paper, printing house “Adverts”, Rixwell Hotels, Arterritory.com, Echo Gone Wrong, NOBA
Image: Lesia Vasylchenko, ’Chronosphere’
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