Current Projects (2024-25)

Performing Memory

The project co-creates and presents local performances of Ukrainian artists ‘Lost Movement’ by Nana Biakova and ‘Without Name’ by Sasha Kurmaz in Ukraine, Italy, and Ireland. Ukrainian artists collaborate remotely with local performers, fostering intercultural dialogue on remembering, commemoration, and movement. The project is initiated by a consortium of partners: proto produkciia from Ukraine, Arte Sella from Italy and CoisCéim from Ireland.

Two Ukrainian works will be presented in their local context. Following this, the works will be virtually explored and reinterpreted in Italy and Ireland. Ukrainian artists will engage in online discussions with local artists from two countries. These discussions will focus on the core concepts, allowing for reinterpretation of and adaptation to the specific cultural contexts of Italy and Ireland. The final performances will showcase the artistic exchange and will happen without the physical presence of Ukrainian artists.

This innovative approach eliminates travel, significantly reducing the project’s carbon footprint while increasing accessibility to impactful performances across Europe. The project redefines international collaboration by prioritising local artist integration and developing a replicable model for future artistic exchange.

Perform Europe Grant

EUR 60,000

Partners

Proto Produkciia Agency

Artistic Works

LOST MOVEMENT. NANA BIAKOVA

Producers: Antonin Artaud Fellowship

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‘Lost Movement’ is a performance by Nana Biakova, who lived in Japan for a long time, until recently returning to Ukraine and to her native town of Mykolaiv to make a work about motion and motionlessness. The performance was inspired by the shipbuilding city of Mykolaiv, as well as by immovable or temporarily non-used objects: vessels, construction cranes, drawbridges, and things in her apartment that remained empty during the large-scale war in Ukraine.

Using her body, Biakova explored the invisible relationship between animate and inanimate objects, boundaries, transient properties, and memory patterns.

Nana Biakova embodies the essence of a movement-based performance and visual art, residing between the realms of Ukraine and Japan, currently based in Kyiv. Her canvas is her corporeal form, a neutral material she employs to delve into the memory patterns, boundaries, identity, and the intricate interplay between human and non-human entities. Since 2016, Nana has been devoted to practising and exploring Ankoku Butoh, a Japanese avant-garde dance that emerged post-WW2 and is often referred to as ‘the dance of the dead’.

WITHOUT NAME. SITUATION OF SASHA KURMAZ

Producers: Antonin Artaud Fellowship

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Sasha Kurmaz, an interdisciplinary artist, explores movement as a form of public mourning for war victims. A group of performers, after a series of conversations with Sasha, create a commemorative situation through performance in a public space. The idea is inspired by a news story of sisters in Ukraine who danced on soldiers' graves, sparking debate about appropriate ways to grieve. Kurmaz sees movement as a universal language for honouring the dead, referencing historical traditions of dance and mourning from around the world. Sasha Kurmaz is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of different genres and media, including photography, video, collaborative practices, and interventions in public space.

In his artistic practice, he explores various models of interaction with urban space and social groups. The main focus of his activity is the city, society, its development and transformations. Kurmaz has participated in many international exhibitions and festivals, his works have been presented in Zamek Ujazdowski (Poland), Künstlerhaus Vienna (Austria), ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art (Germany), Centrum för fotografi (Sweden), and many others.