«Freedom moves to the category of abstract ideas, never fated to become reality. In his social imprisonment, the Subject resembles the prisoner of Plato’s cave, who longs for unattainable dimension of unlimited possibilities. The search for such dimension is the goal of Victor Sydorenko’s creative work. All his projects portray a character, which embodies an active force opposing inertial environment in a symbolic duel» (V. Burlaka).

In the publication, for the first time in Ukrainian art history, the progress of visual art during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries is thoroughly considered. The book provides, applying the newest research paradigms, a comprehensive study of the avant-garde phenomenon of the early twentieth century, of artistic and cultural aspects of the evolution of nonconformism and visual art. The monograph is supplemented by a chronology of artistic events. The book will be of interest to specialists in the field of contemporary art, art critics, culturologists, university students, and general readers.

The work attempts to track the path of the Hero/Object/Phantom created by Viktor Sydorenko: both in his sculptures and in the reflection of colleagues, whose interpretation gave a new life to this image and generated new meanings and senses, which the author could not have predicted.

“His path is evolutionary, relaxed, thoughtful, his attraction is in thoroughness, trust, his intonations are not excessive— largely due to the unexpected, but also surprisingly organic mix of traditions and novelty. Of course, this path is also marked with the innovative impulses set by contemporary time” (O. Solovyov).

SUPERHERO, a catalog of the eponymous multicultural art project includes participating Ukrainian and American contemporary artists: Mel Ramos, Victor Sydorenko, and Valentin Popov. The works of famous artists in a joint exhibition were united by the theme studying the cult characters. Artists reflect on the archetype of the modern hero, revealing the origins and interconnections of the iconic characters in history. The exhibition was organized by the Modernism Gallery (San Francisco, USA), the Modern Art Research Institute of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, and the Artcult Foundation.

“Aesthetic sense does not accept contradictions and does not want to wait for them to be resolved in real time and space. The artistic consciousness is the one that reflects on it first. When it starts its intellectual and sensuous game with the object, it suggests many original variations of its innovative reading and simultaneously implements them in artistic image. The imprint that such image leaves in the feeling of the viewers, often turned to be a source of new public ideas” (L. Bereznytska).

“The art of my country’s totalitarian past resorted to classical forms in order to create an illusion that it is a part of eternity. Meanwhile, I resort to the language of classical art not because I am trying to be different from the others and to assert myself in that way but because I am striving to incorporate the global culture and to reflect it in my paintings” (V. Sydorenko).

“People in white underwear look more impersonal. Underpants, worn by everyone—soldiers, prisoners, civilians— in totalitarian twentieth century were a sign of equality, common destiny. However, I also tried to express a more general situation—a duel with time—in which people are dragged in in all times and places: be it totalitarianism or democracy, present day or five thousand years ago. In anticipation, expectation and uncertainty, each character gets involved in a monotonous, passive race. None of the depicted can escape from participating in some already known, but still incomprehensible ritual…” (V. Sydorenko).

“The clone people, produced by production line of mass media, have a comforting illusion of immortality as compensation. Religions offer their versions—transition from one life form to another, immortality of the soul… However, there is a downside in immortality as well. Infinite existence frightens with monotony, only death diversifies human forms, manifestations, destinies… It is difficult to imagine that humanity could become both conserved and immortal” (V. Sydorenko).

The book "Free Atonality" is written outside the genre. It cannot even be attributed to the so-called "open works". It provoked by the work of famous artist Victor Sydorenko, but not a direct comment on his painting. His work is a detonator. The artist says: "Look!" Text: "Listen ...". Different paths to the same thing. The book has a peculiar principle of uncertainty, the life of atonality as the music of dialectics, not knowledge of it. There is only logic and poetics of freedom. Vision of visibility. This book is for those who do not ask the question "Why all this?"