Aiolos

Andriy Linik is one of the most interesting and most talented media artists, curators and theorists in Ukraine these days. Since there is no systematic state education in this area, Andriy is – just like everybody else – an autodidact. However, all of his artworks involve exhaustive research utilized in a high artistic manner.
Aiolos, his work, created in 2011, is once again up-to-date regarding the current situation in Ukraine. As we know, in the Greek mythology Aiolos (Aeolus) was the king of Aeolis and the ruler of winds. He has sent the Zephyr, a favorable wind to aid Ulysses on his return home, and gave him also a bag of unfavorable winds opened up by Ulysses‘ curious sailors. In new media, we can find today similarities with a wind of such a nature that depends on a direction we follow. “The new media wind,” which has been only recently liberated, carries us away in the opposite direction, away from our goals. Andriy’s artwork personifies Internet as a rhizomatic medium, which sometimes confuses us rather than informs us. Our current new media are often rather an intermediary of enmity, aggression and absurdity, than an endeavor to understand each other.

Ianina Prudenko