The Transparency Projects: 25th Anniversary of Chernobyl at KGB Bar

ABOUT

To emphasize the struggle of Individual vs. System, Korol’s series of pop propaganda paintings in The Transparency Project: Empowering Minorities and Majorities will hit the already-indoctrinating atmosphere of the bar. The surprisingly lively line-up, given the somber topic, includes pro-transparency guest readings, nuclear cocktails, and a presentation of The Tsar and the Megaphones, an allegoric story illustrated by the paintings of the exhibit. 

Born the week of Chernobyl in Ukraine to refuseniks, Korol’s focus on empowering individuals in disadvantaged struggles against their political systems is an ongoing theme in her work. The lag in communication from the top to the citizens after the explosion cost many their lives, and even more their health. That Glasnost was implemented soon after when journalists could transparently report on the government was arguably the hair that broke Gorbachov's back and led to the fall of a totalitarian system. In the midst of modern-day nuclear meltdowns, Wikileaks, and ongoing threats of budget cuts to public broadcasting, systematic loyalty to the system over the individual is not a thing of the Soviet past.

THE OPENING

Click to view photos from the opening by New Orleans photographer Sarah Parvardeh 

In commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, Urban Pop Artist Margarita Korol is hosting an evening of Glasnost-themed art at East Village’s KGB Bar on April 28 at 7:00PM.

Chernobyl Party after 8:00. Look out for the official drink of the anniversary, the Pineapple Chernobyl, on Jewcy. 

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READERS

 

GAL BECKERMAN is a reporter at The Forward. He was a longtime editor and staff writer at the Columbia Journalism Review and has also written for the New York Times, Boston Globe, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. He was a Fellow at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Berlin and the recipient of a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. His first book, When They Come for Us, We’ll Be Gone, a history of the Soviet Jewry movement, was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in September 2010. It was named one of the best books of the year by the New Yorker and the Washington Post and was awarded the 2010 National Jewish Book Award.

ZACHARY J. GEORGE is a New Orleans writer, actor, and limousine driver. He has published fiction, nonfiction, and poetry and has won awards for his writing and acting. His most recent publication, the short story What Cats Do, was featured in the Fall 2010 issue of Inkwell Journal.

MEDIA

ACTIVE CULTURES by Margarita Korol for Tablet Magazine

SEE NO EVIL episode of This American Life with readings from Voices from Chernobyl, reviewed for Jewcy 

STOLEN PAINTING: Information in Whatup

RESOURCES

• Chernobyl's Aftermath: The Pompeii of the Nuclear Age by Walter Mayr
• My Perestroika FILM
• VICE Magazine goes to Chernobyl
• Kid of Speed, a viral site in which a woman documents her pics of Chernobyl snapped on a motorcycle that some consider a hoax, but illuminating all the same. 
• Adam Curtis, BBC's darling of humanitarian documentarians 
• Voices from Chernobyl, Svetlana Alexievich's important contribution to highlighting the individual's experience as personal agency is replaced by that of a higher power.

SPECIAL THANKS

Propaglasnost! Exhibit Art Photographer: Laina Yoswein

Propaglasnost! Event Photographer: Sarah Parvardeh

Propaglasnost! Event Videographer: Laina Yoswein

Media Sponsorship: Jewcy Magazine

In Partnership with: HIAS

Special thanks also to: The incredible support from friends at Jewcy, JDUB, HIAS, Tablet, Planet 1516 Chicago Artist Co-Op (2007-2009 installation), the Stolkins, Korols, Yepishinas, etceteras, Alla Rubinstein, Yuri Tarnopolsky, Joe Galizian, Jason Appel, Emma Morris, Zachary George, Gal Beckerman, and KGB Bar.