Studio Offbeats 36.0: Leo Trotsenko

Studio Offbeats 36.0: Leo Trotsenko - Bombastic Show

“Bombastiс Show is an exhibition that is generously filled with bitter disenchantment and disappointment. It brings together a bunch of Leo Trotsenko’s recent projects from 2023 to 2026.

The “Regarding the joy of others” and “A certain type of violence related to the sound” sculpture series speak to the backdrop experience of the war. Evolving such works is based on observing the war theatre on the outskirts of it, at a distance, through social media and its filters and algorithms for providing information. The works reflect the artist’s physical position in a world of mediated wars and affects.

The sculptures and images on display were made in order to reflect on fragile peace conditions and the violent/war images perception which are circulating constantly online. They were made as a way of safely speaking about selective political blindness and emotional and cognitive fatigue of consuming such images.

Cambridge dictionary about the meaning of the word “bombastic”: “forceful and confident in a way that is intended to be very powerful and impressive, but may not have much real meaning or effect”.

In Ukrainian slang, the word ‘bomba’ can mean something incredibly good or sensational, and has a positive connotation.”

LEO TROTSENKO is a process-based artist, co-curator from Ukraine living and working in Vienna. Studied in Lviv National Art Academy, Kyiv Academy of Media Arts and Vienna University of Applied Arts.

His artistic practice focuses on themes related to memory politics, history and the ways of documenting it. Most of his works are based on personal experience and mixing history with fiction. Strong connections on history of art and music, attention to subcultures and micro communities, ”comic” effect, amateurship and poetics of simple gestures are the main core of Trotsenko’s projects. The main medium of his work is installed “situation” based on sculpture, drawing, video and embroidery.

Leo´s works have been featured in group exhibitions at Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart, LocHal in Tilburg, Mystetskyi Arsenal and Ukrainian House in Kyiv, as well as the Austrian cultural forum in Prague and Künstlerhaus in Vienna.

Trotsenko’s works are part of the collections MOCA in Kherson and the Museum of Local Lore in Bilovodsk (temporarily occupied) in Ukraine.