The Fountain of Exhaustion

The public sculpture by Ukrainian artist Pavlo Makov will be installed in the center of the MQ’s main courtyard. The artwork draws its inspiration from Kharkiv in the 1990s, a time when the city was frequently plagued by water shortages and political and social exhaustion had taken hold throughout Ukraine. The Fountain of Exhaustion was Ukraine’s contribution to the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022. In Venice, the work has already garnered significant international attention after being transported from the war zone to Italy in the spring of 2022 under the most difficult conditions. The sculpture has become a symbol of the resilience of Ukraine and its artists in times of war, but it also speaks to us against the backdrop of the depletion of natural resources and our relationship with nature.

Curator MuseumsQuartier: Verena Kaspar-Eisert
Guest curators: Borys Filonenko, Lizaveta German, Maria Lanko
Projektinitiative: Petra Stelzer, www.imaginehumanrights.com