A CHAPEL AGAINST FASCISM
God Save The Queers
KOMPLOT Brussels present Denys Shantar at Supermarket Independent Art Fair, Stockholm, Sweden
Curated by Thibaud Leplat and Camille Van Meenen
Opening Wednesday 3rd 2025 at 18:00
Exhibition: 03/04-06/04/25
For the 2025 edition of the Supermarket Independent Art Fair in Stockholm, Sweden, centred around the theme of Passion, KOMPLOT is proud to invite Antwerp-based artist Denys Shantar (UA) to develop and exhibit the next stage of his ongoing project, God Save the Queers. This work is the result of a year-long research period at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp (BE) and an artist residency at the contemporary art centre Cas-co in Leuven (BE), where the project had its first public showcase in September 2024.
At Supermarket 2025, Shantar will present A Chapel Against Fascism—an installation challenging dominant narratives and confronting historical and contemporary struggles tied to queerness, religion, and resistance. His work embodies his deep engagement with personal history, collective memory, and political critique.
Drawing from Christian iconography, mythology, art history, folklore, and personal experiences, Shantar weaves a complex narrative that reflects on themes of childhood, religion, migration, and queerness. His research into the lives and representations of Christian saints and martyrs serves as a foundation for his exploration of queer identity within both historical and contemporary socio-political contexts.
Through this installation, Shantar interrogates the intersections of faith, oppression, and resilience, asking urgent questions about the role of spirituality in queer resistance movements. By reclaiming sacred spaces and religious symbols, A Chapel Against Fascism becomes an act of defiance—a space of healing, reflection, and empowerment.
About
Denys Shantar (*1997, Kherson, Ukraine), is a Ukrainian – Swiss artist, re- searcher and curator, who has a background in theater and acting. In 2019 he graduated with a Fine Art Bachelor’s from the Zurich University of the Arts (CH) with a focus on Photography as well as Drawing and Painting. 2021, he finished his Master’s degree in Costume Design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp (BE). He exhibited in several international institutions and spaces, including Z33 House for Contemporary Art in Hasselt (BE), *Altefabrik Rapperswil during Grosse Regionale (CH), BASE Milano (IT), Morpho Antwerp (BE), Contemporary Art Institution Helmhaus Zurich (CH), Textile Museum Texture Kortrijk (BE) and Crux Galerie Athens (GR). He received the Emerging Artist Award during the 25th Gabrovo Biennial 2022 in Bulgaria. Additionally, he was granted the Royal Academy Antwerp Department Prize in Costume Design in 2021 and the CC Brugge Input/Output Aanmoedigings Prize in 2023. In 2022, he collaborated with the Museum of Modern Religious Art (MMRK) for his first solo show at the 3rd Ypres Quadrennial (BE) and continued working with the MMRK in 2023 to curate the group exhibition “CROSS-ING WAY‐S” in Brussels. As of September 2023, he started his research project “God Save the Queers – The (not so) secret Life of Saints” at the Royal Academy in Antwerp. He lives and works in Antwerp.
As a starting point for his artistic practice, Denys Shantar often uses his own memories and family history, deploying different materials and techniques to create narratives that lie between reality and fiction. In his research about childhood, religion, migration, and queerness, he links the personal to current global but also historical events, weaving in symbols from mythology, art history, folklore and Christianity. While exploring his complex identity and relationship towards himself, the world and his family, he asks himself two simple questions: ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Where do I come from?’. Since his Costume Design studies, he started to focus on the use of textile, embroidery and collaging in his work. Using predominantly recycled, gifted, or found fabric and materials, he gives his work an invisible layer through the object’s unknown past, combining it with the new given context. Besides his textile practice, he also creates In Situ works and/or uses curation in his artistic practice, like in his 2022’s solo show Will it bloom this year? held at the St. Martin’s Cathedral and St. Peter’s Church in Ypres.
SUPERMARKET – Stockholm Independent Art Fair is an international art fair for artist-run initiatives. Supermarket is dedicated to exhibiting artist-run spaces, artists’ collectives, nomadic spaces and independent artists’ initiatives of all shapes and from around the world. The key aim is to display unique projects, create opportunities for new local and international networks and share the strengths of the independent art world with a large audience. The art fair exhibition is accompanied by a public talk and performance programme with invited performance artists and speakers from Sweden and abroad. Supermarket takes place annually in Stockholm, Sweden.
Graphic design by Seppe-Hazel Laeremans
LINKS
https://www.instagram.com/komplot_brussels
https://www.instagram.com/saint.deonys
https://www.instagram.com/supermarketart