Nest

Installation

The Blue Rock Pigeons popular in the urban environments do not make nests, they gather
just enough sticks to keep their eggs from rolling away and that is it. It’s not really even a
nest so much as a slight barrier. You can find a lot of questions in the net “why pigeons are
horrible at next making”. In fact, humans are new on the scene, and cities are even newer.
Pigeons are actually cliff nesting birds. They likely just build a small barrier with chips of
rock in their natural setting. Evolution has shaped each species for the best survival
strategies for their young, and it doesn’t much care if we humans can understand the
reasons why, undoubtably there is a survival strategy for pigeons in their urban habitat,
which may be short on the kinds of plant materials woodland songbirds have to hand.
These judgemental thoughts appear also in the context of migration, judging by the
common understanding what a “nest” should look like.

Anastasiya Yarovenko

Anastasiya Yarovenko (1983, Ukraine) lives and works in Vienna. She studied at the Academy
of Fine Arts Vienna. In 2015 she took part in School of Kyiv - Biennale 2015 and 6th Moscow
Biennale of Contemporary Art. In 2015 she received Kunsthalle Wien Prize. Anastasiya is also a recipient of MAK-Schindler Scholarship Program for 2016/2017, Los Angeles (USA).
Selected exhibitions: Can you see what I see, Lentos, Linz (2022), Maerz, Linz (2022), Multiple Singularities, xhibitE, Vienna (2020), If I only could, Köttinspektionen, Uppsala (2018), Amore, Sculpture Park, Vienna Museums Quartier (2017), Post-Peace, Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart (2017) und Akbank Sanat, Istanbul (2016); Final Projects: Group XLIII, Mackey Apartments, Los Angeles (2017); Preis der Kunsthalle Wien, Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz (2015/16).

Publications: Anastasiya Yarovenko. Kunsthalle Prize 2015. Exhibition catalogue with texts by
Lucas Gehrmann, Nicolaus Schafhausen, Hemma Schmutz, Eva Blimlinger by Sternberg Press, Berlin, 2015; Guidebook. The school of Kyiv Biennial 2015. Visual Culture Research Center, 2015; How to gather. Acting Relations, Mapping Positions published with Kunsthalle Wien, MuHKA and Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, 2017.
The artist deals with the relationship of the body to social structures and behaviors, to space
and environment. She uses various media to rethink and expand the field of needs and
necessities and to explore their immediate limits.