who owns the city?

<rotor> | graz | austria 2025

Who Owns the City?
Installation: recycled materials, collage, kinetic object,
2024-2025
In his installation, Anton Tkachenko combines various objects that he has searched for, found, and collected in the cities in which he has lived. The starting point is his hometown Kharkiv in Ukraine, which he had to leave after the Russian invasion.
"Moving to Graz for me became scarier than life in Liv or Kyiv, but not more frightening than staying in Kharkiv or Lubny, or Chervonohrad. The reason is the unknown surrounding and the lack of understanding. For me, these feelings are very similar to nature, to something that simply exists and that you cannot influence in any way." Tkachenko started in Celje to prepare a story about a burnt-down house.
Subsequently, he found a weapon, a tool with which he was able to reconquer his place. For the exhibition in Graz, he developed the idea of fighting nature, which found its expression in the medieval dragon.
This work interweaves reality-the war in Ukraine and moving to Graz-and the legend about the knight, his weapon, and the challenges he faces. But in this story, everything is locked in place and cannot act. The sword is not a sword.
The knight is in his closed bubble. All previous memories are blurred. And all the characters can do is watch the dragon.
Anton Tkachenko, born in 1994 in Kharkiv, lives and works in Graz