In 2015, during the opening days of the 56th Venice Biennale, a small exhibition project called Limited Liability Pavilion opened its doors. A cozy 'house show' with no claims to any official status, the exhibition centered around the theme of national representation by means of modern art. It addressed the crises of such representation, appropriation of the language of art by the authorities and their ideological serving staff, representation imitation, imposition of a national identity "from above" and its (self-)invention at a grass-roots level.

The second Limited Liability Pavilion takes place in Kiev and evolves beyond its 'house show' format. It includes pioneering works of Kazakhstani artists who have, for two decades, shaped post-Soviet art despite the lack of state support and desire to pay for their inclusion in the cultural officialdom. Artists who have recently emerged in the public field including Bakhyt Bubikanova, Creole Center, and Zoya Falkova have, from the start, practiced a "parallel existence" in relation to state cultural institutions.

The theme of Limited Liability Pavilion weaves into the Ukrainian context – a clash between independent identity construction and the imposition of the only true "centralized" identity by the authorities and ideological apparatuses. The exhibition poses a question on the relations between an artist and state in virtually every country that gained independence in 1991. To this end, we thoughtfully picked and presented works that could hardly be to the liking of the Minister of Culture of Kazakhstan.

Organizers: Eurasian Cultural Alliance PA (Kazakhstan), Curatorial Association OK Projects, Closer Art Center (Ukraine).