What's On? Event Map
9 november, 2023
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Key Art Events in Ukraine
«Indifferent Space» exhibition by Natalia Lisova
Dates: November 2, 2023 – December 24, 2023
Address: Kyiv, 21 Yaroslavska Street (Dymchuk Gallery)
Operating Hours: Wed–Sun, 12:00–19:00
Entrance: Free Admission
The «Indifferent Space» project features paintings, graphics, and video by Natalia Lisova created after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. These works create a space where fresh memories look like echoes of a long-lost past. The artist achieves this through a method of erasure. Lisova produces the picture clearly and in detail, and then she erases the created image with brushes, a rag, or her hands. Using this method, the author doesn’t need to be realistic to be sincere, but it’s necessary to be sincere internally without going into details.
«Lisova’s black-and-white interiors look disturbing and forsaken, but instead, the landscapes seem to create portals to an uncertain and safe world. Such achromatic fixation ensures the preservation of the self-sufficiency of the memory, capturing the past in an artistic frame. It is the author’s way of stabilizing, archiving, and preserving space, present and future. At the same time, this method also works for archiving memory, which, with time, loses details and documentation, becomes less reliable, changeable, and later, in general, leaves one impression that it’s no longer so important whether it was this way exactly,» the project's announcement states.
Address: Kharkiv, 4 Svobody Square (CMA YermilovCentre)
Operating Hours: Tue–Sun, 12:00–19:00
Entrance: Free Admission
«Lisova’s black-and-white interiors look disturbing and forsaken, but instead, the landscapes seem to create portals to an uncertain and safe world. Such achromatic fixation ensures the preservation of the self-sufficiency of the memory, capturing the past in an artistic frame. It is the author’s way of stabilizing, archiving, and preserving space, present and future. At the same time, this method also works for archiving memory, which, with time, loses details and documentation, becomes less reliable, changeable, and later, in general, leaves one impression that it’s no longer so important whether it was this way exactly,» the project's announcement states.
«Brave To Bring The Light» photo exhibition
Dates: November 4, 2023–November 19, 2023Address: Kharkiv, 4 Svobody Square (CMA YermilovCentre)
Operating Hours: Tue–Sun, 12:00–19:00
Entrance: Free Admission
Organizer(s): DTEK Group and Port of Culture
Co-organizer(s): with the support of partners Ist Publishing, Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers, Taras Shevchenko National Museum, and the «YermilovCentre» Center for Contemporary Art
The exhibition is dedicated to one of the most challenging periods in the history of independent Ukraine, the power outages and blackouts in the winter of 2022. Works by Sasha Maslov, Serhiy Korovainy, Yevhen Malolietka, Polina Polikarpova, Mstyslav Chernov, and other photographers tell the story of adaptation to an unusual way of life and daily interactions of Ukrainians in such a difficult situation. Photos from the exhibition cover almost all regions of Ukraine. A photo book with the same name can also be viewed in the exhibition space.
«In the 'Brave To Bring The Light' project, we see a lot of hope and values that unite us, transforming the personal traumatic experience into collective resistance to despair, creating new forms of existence. Through the documentation of war, we see that even in extremely challenging conditions, Ukrainians find a way to learn, create, and work, to continue the struggle,» as is announced on the project page.
After being shown at the YermilovCentre, the exhibition will also be presented in Lviv on November 25 at the Center for Architecture, Design, and Urbanism Porokhova Vezha.
«In the 'Brave To Bring The Light' project, we see a lot of hope and values that unite us, transforming the personal traumatic experience into collective resistance to despair, creating new forms of existence. Through the documentation of war, we see that even in extremely challenging conditions, Ukrainians find a way to learn, create, and work, to continue the struggle,» as is announced on the project page.
After being shown at the YermilovCentre, the exhibition will also be presented in Lviv on November 25 at the Center for Architecture, Design, and Urbanism Porokhova Vezha.
«11 Friends of Yanovych» group exhibition
Dates: November 05, 2023 – November 24, 2023
Address: Kyiv, 21a Yevhen Chykalenko Street, CMA White World
Operating Hours: Wed–Sun, 11:00–19:00
Entrance: Free Admission
Organizer(s): CMA White World
Curator(s): Oleksiy Maliuk
The exhibition is dedicated to the birthday of Oleksandr Yanovych, an artist and the founder of White World. It features works of 11 Ukrainian artists who are frequent residents and good friends of the gallery. The exhibition showcases works by Olena Pryduvalova, Vladyslav Shereshevsky, Vlad Krystovski, Akhra Adzhindzhal, Dmytro Krystovski, Alexander Lyapin, Roman Romanyshyn, Olexandra Kryshovska, Oleh Denysenko, and Petro Smetana.
«The exhibition '11 Friends of Yanovych' will showcase works already owned by CMA White World, thereby continuing the series of research projects 'Working with the Collection.' Selected works will be placed on individual gallery walls, and the highlight of each wall will be artists' gifts made specifically for the birthday man,» the announcement states.
«The exhibition '11 Friends of Yanovych' will showcase works already owned by CMA White World, thereby continuing the series of research projects 'Working with the Collection.' Selected works will be placed on individual gallery walls, and the highlight of each wall will be artists' gifts made specifically for the birthday man,» the announcement states.
«Coexisting with Darkness» exhibition
Dates: November 09, 2023 – February 25, 2024
Address: Kyiv, 10 Lavrska Street (Mystetskyi Arsenal)
Operating Hours: Wed–Sun, 12:00–19:00
Entrance: 60–250 UAH
Organizer(s): Mystetskyi Arsenal
Co-organizer(s): In partnership with the NGO «Community of Mystetskyi Arsenal,» funded by the UK, Canada, the USA, Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Curator(s): Anton Usanov, Natasha Chichasova
«Coexisting with Darkness» focuses on the comprehension and representation of rolling blackouts introduced in Ukraine after the onset of Russian shelling of critical energy infrastructure in 2022.
«Art that sought to reflect upon social changes, itself became engulfed in the darkness, and forced to reinvent itself as a means to organize an independent world of living. Habitable spaces shrinking down to the ‘Points of Invincibility’ actualized Fedir Tetyanych’s dream of autonomous living space, a biotechnosphere, capable of standing against the cold cosmos. The sphere transforms from a particular engineering structure into a social formation. Cafés, neighbors’ houses, friends, and offices that supplied themselves with generators and Starlinks (or solved the telecommunication problem by any other means), form utopian infrastructural hubs. Art objects too became inevitably connected to the ‘endless body’ of communications. Thus, this exhibition is dedicated to highlighting the strategies, dependencies, and weaknesses in their ways of coexisting with the darkness in times of total uncertainty,» the curator team explains.
The main question posed by the project is, what should art be to avoid vanishing in the darkness? The artists answer by inventing the light inside themselves and the community around.
«Art that sought to reflect upon social changes, itself became engulfed in the darkness, and forced to reinvent itself as a means to organize an independent world of living. Habitable spaces shrinking down to the ‘Points of Invincibility’ actualized Fedir Tetyanych’s dream of autonomous living space, a biotechnosphere, capable of standing against the cold cosmos. The sphere transforms from a particular engineering structure into a social formation. Cafés, neighbors’ houses, friends, and offices that supplied themselves with generators and Starlinks (or solved the telecommunication problem by any other means), form utopian infrastructural hubs. Art objects too became inevitably connected to the ‘endless body’ of communications. Thus, this exhibition is dedicated to highlighting the strategies, dependencies, and weaknesses in their ways of coexisting with the darkness in times of total uncertainty,» the curator team explains.
The main question posed by the project is, what should art be to avoid vanishing in the darkness? The artists answer by inventing the light inside themselves and the community around.
«Assembly Scheme» exhibition project
Dates: November 09, 2023 – February 04, 2024
Address: Kyiv, 102-104 Antonovycha Street (M17 Contemporary Art Center)
Operating Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM
Entrance: Free admission with registration
Registration: https://bit.ly/3MWOnZd
Organizer(s): M17 Contemporary Art Center, Public Organization «Nahirna 22,» and Art Support Fund
Curator(s): Svitlana Agranovska, Yuriy Bolsa, Oleksandr Bohomaz, Nikita Vlasov, Andrii Pidlisnyi, Maxim Mazur
The «Assembly Scheme» project is focused on the phenomenon of workshops at the Kyiv Institute of Automation. The exhibition brings together 60 artists who present a self-organized community of artists, a living organism that evolves and changes, providing impulses for new ideas and reflections by artists.
The first artists appeared in this space in 2016, but the community made its official presence known on October 19, 2019, when the first «Open Workshop Day» took place.
«The exhibition at the M17 CAC has no chronological sequence and serves as a type of model for an assembly: a symbolic scheme where a set of elements, details, events, is assembled in the viewer’s perception into a coherent structure,» the curators explain.
The exhibition consists of two parts, presented on the first and second floors of M17. The first floor features works by the following artists. You can see the list of artists whose works are presented on the first floor by following the link. The second-floor exhibition includes systemic changes that will be announced separately on the resources of the M17 exhibition center.
The first artists appeared in this space in 2016, but the community made its official presence known on October 19, 2019, when the first «Open Workshop Day» took place.
«The exhibition at the M17 CAC has no chronological sequence and serves as a type of model for an assembly: a symbolic scheme where a set of elements, details, events, is assembled in the viewer’s perception into a coherent structure,» the curators explain.
The exhibition consists of two parts, presented on the first and second floors of M17. The first floor features works by the following artists. You can see the list of artists whose works are presented on the first floor by following the link. The second-floor exhibition includes systemic changes that will be announced separately on the resources of the M17 exhibition center.
«Soviet Ukraine and the Transnational Architecture of Standardization»: lecture by Christina E. Crawford
Date: November 09, 2023
Address: Lviv, 6 Akademika Bohomoltsia Street (Center for Urban History)
Time: 6:30 PM
Entrance: Free admission with registration
Registration: https://forms.gle/iPNLcqver7FoxT6x9
Organizer(s): Center for Urban History
What is the historical context of the destruction of industrial architecture in Eastern Ukraine happening before our eyes due to the aggressor country? This question is one of those that will be discussed by architectural and urban history expert Christina Crawford in her lecture «Soviet Ukraine and the Transnational Architecture of Standardization.» The example will be Kharkiv when it was the first capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1919–1934).
The lecture will discuss:
The lecture will discuss:
— The first Stalin’s Five-Year Plan (investments by the Soviet government in large-scale projects in Kharkiv and the Donbas in the 1920s and 1930s)
— Standardized design of factories and city blocks (e.g., New Kharkiv district, designed by Ukrainian architects for workers of the tractor factory on the outskirts of Kharkiv).
— Exchange of transnational knowledge and technologies (how the Soviet authorities used innovations in industrial architecture developed with the help of American technical consultants in New Kharkiv). An example is the Mariupol Metallurgical Plant Azovstal which Ukrainian soldiers held a decisive resistance to Russian occupiers in the spring of 2022. It was also involved in the exchange of architectural types from different countries.
The lecture will be held in collaboration with the Reading Club of the Kharkiv School of Architecture. The lecture will be delivered in English with synchronous translation.
Dr. Christina E. Crawford is an architect by education and a professor of art history at Masse-Martin NEH University. Her research focuses on the transnational exchange of ideas about housing and urban form in the 20th century.
«Tense Horizon: Longing for Crimea» exhibition by Elmira Shemsedinova
Dates: November 10, 2023 – December 10, 2023
Address: Kyiv, 9 Omelyanovycha-Pavlenka Street (Crimean House)
Operating Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Entrance: Free admission
Organizer(s): 39.9 Gallery, Crimean House
The «Tense Horizon» project by Ukrainian contemporary artist Elmira Shemsedinova is a personal response to the occupation of Crimea and the war in Ukraine. Elmira uses marine landscapes as symbols of her memories and reactions to current events. Usually, the artist creates landscapes from nature, but all the works presented at the exhibition were created from memory after the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine.
«The deeply embedded image of a seascape is recreated anew each time, showing the power of memory and creativity. Previously, the seascape was associated with summer and leisure... Now, the gaze directed at the horizon and watching the sea has become a symbol of anxiety,» explains the project's announcement.
The exhibition will open on November 10 at 7:00 PM. On the same day, Shemsedinova will hold a performance called «Remembering the Sea,» during which she will recreate a Crimean landscape from memory.
«The deeply embedded image of a seascape is recreated anew each time, showing the power of memory and creativity. Previously, the seascape was associated with summer and leisure... Now, the gaze directed at the horizon and watching the sea has become a symbol of anxiety,» explains the project's announcement.
The exhibition will open on November 10 at 7:00 PM. On the same day, Shemsedinova will hold a performance called «Remembering the Sea,» during which she will recreate a Crimean landscape from memory.
«Reality and Mirage» exhibition by Max Vityk
Dates: November 10, 2023 – January 14, 2023
Address: Kyiv, 40b Knyaziv Ostrozkykh Street (Museum of Ukrainian Diaspora)
Operating Hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Entrance: Free admission
Organizer(s): Museum of Ukrainian Diaspora
At the core of the exhibition is a retrospective journey through the workshops of the artist Max Vityk, from Texas, Arizona, Cairo, The Hague to Kyiv and Zasupoyivka. The exhibition features works, photographs, and personal artifacts from specific periods of the artist's life and career.
«Each hall of the exhibition recreates the atmosphere of a separate workshop of the artist and sequentially transports us to the worlds of the red cliffs of Arizona, the folklore of the North Sea and Supiy lake, the scorching deserts of Egypt, and the revolutionary events of Kyiv's Maidan. Vityk's works are simultaneously meditative and filled with inner tension. They gently immerse us in the world of the subconscious, offering reflective remnants of reality, often philosophical and political. Bold colors and textures layer into archaic and geological narratives and ultimately provide an imaginary sense of closeness and tactility,» as stated in the announcement.
The exhibition will open on November 10 at 5:00 PM.
«Each hall of the exhibition recreates the atmosphere of a separate workshop of the artist and sequentially transports us to the worlds of the red cliffs of Arizona, the folklore of the North Sea and Supiy lake, the scorching deserts of Egypt, and the revolutionary events of Kyiv's Maidan. Vityk's works are simultaneously meditative and filled with inner tension. They gently immerse us in the world of the subconscious, offering reflective remnants of reality, often philosophical and political. Bold colors and textures layer into archaic and geological narratives and ultimately provide an imaginary sense of closeness and tactility,» as stated in the announcement.
The exhibition will open on November 10 at 5:00 PM.
Folk Sound Workshop with the US Orchestra
Dates: November 14, 2023
Address: 4 Velyka Zhytomyrska Street, Kyiv (Department of Arts at Lesya Ukrainka Public Library)
Time: 7:00 PM
Entrance: Free admission with registration
Registration: [Registration Link](https://bit.ly/40s8yn2)
Organizer(s): Department of Arts at Lesya Ukrainka Public Library
The Folk Sound Workshop focuses on the music of Western Podillia and Soviet editions of traditional music from the 1970s to the 1990s (on vinyl, reels, VHS tapes, and cassette tape recorders). The main questions to be explored include: Who recorded this music, how, and where? How did Soviet editions of traditional music on vinyl come into existence, and what did they sound like? What did researchers record during their expeditions?
«The 1970s can be described as a new wave in music recordings. Participants of republican competitions were recorded, and researchers began traveling on their paths with their equipment. In the 1980s, musicians started recording themselves to ensure their music wouldn't be forgotten. In the 1990s, institutions sent their employees on expeditions, and complete albums were released from the recorded material. You'll hear everything about this music and its history at the event,» promise the organizers. You'll also have the opportunity to listen to a large collection of vinyl records during the event.
The opening of the Jam Factory Art Center
Dates: November 18, 2023
Address: Lviv, 124 Bohdana Khmelnytskoho Street (Jam Factory Art Center)
Time: 3:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Entrance: Free admission
Organizer(s): Jam Factory Art Center
After 8 years of revitalizing the old jam factory, the Jam Factory team is opening an art space that combines performance, music, visual arts, and community-building projects. The first exhibition is titled «Our Years, Our Words, Our Losses, Our Quests, Our Us.» We have previously written about the Jam Factory Art Center project in more detail.
The opening will take place on November 18, and the program includes:
The opening will take place on November 18, and the program includes:
— 3:00 PM — Arrival of guests;
— 4:00 PM — Welcome speeches from the heads of the institution – Harald Binder, Bozhena Pelenska, Tetyana Fedoruk, and representatives of the city and state authorities.;
— 5:00 PM — Opening of the exhibition «Our Years, Our Words, Our Losses, Our Searches, Our Us» by the curators of the exhibition — Borys Filonenko, Kateryna Iakovlenko, and Natalia Matsenko;
— 5:30 PM, 6:00 PM, 6:30 PM — Curated tours of the exhibition «Our Years, Our Words, Our Losses, Our Quests, Our Us»;
— 5:30 PM, 6 PM, 6:30 PM — Curated tours of the historical exhibition in the tower «From the Josef Kronik Factory to a Center of Contemporary Art»;
— 7:00 PM–8:30 PM — Concert by Mariana Sadovska and Christian Tome «Learning Light.» In collaboration with Safiye Lenter-Qizi.
— 8:45 PM–10:00 PM — Grisly Faye concert.
«A Border-crossing Cabaret» by NASHi Experimental Theatre Club
Dates: November 18, 2023
Address: Kyiv, 6 Saksahanskoho Street, (Budynok Kino)
Time: 7:00 PM
Information about the tickets
Organizer(s): NASHi.etc
Co-organizer(s): La MaMa and CultureHub
Curator(s): Romana Soutus and Sofia Yushchenko
«A Border-crossing Cabaret» is an unconventional performance that explores the theme of crossing borders, bringing together five creative entities: the theatrical-musical ensemble Schmalgauzen, the shadow theater Tinyova, the project Andrii Barmalii x Yevheniia Vidishcheva, experimental playwright Dima Levytskyi, and the AMÆNTES theater.
This is the first project of the NASHi experimental theater club. It is different from traditional theater in that it has no fixed location, resident troupe, or repertoire. Instead, NASHI.etc functions as a theater talent accelerator. Its role is to assist artists in realizing their creative ideas by providing a venue, equipment, informational and organizational support, expert guidance, and international representation.
NASHi.etc was founded by Ukrainian theater expert Romana Soutus and Sofia Yushchenko, who has become the theater's executive director. The idea for NASHi.etc was inspired by the famous New York avant-garde theater La MaMa, where founder Romana Soutus worked for a long time. NASHi.etc is set to become La MaMa's partner in Ukraine. Its artistic director Mia Yoo is also part of the consultative group that will participate in future workshops and other events for Ukrainian experimental theater.
La MaMa is an experimental theater club in New York founded in 1961. It played a significant role in the careers of many renowned artists, including Sam Shepard, Julie Taymor, Diane Lane, and Harvey Fierstein. The theater has collaborated with actors such as Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Danny DeVito, and more. In the 1960s, La MaMa was part of the Off Off Broadway movement, which showcased new avant-garde and experimental productions, and it is the only theater from that movement that still exists today. The theater also includes the artistic group «Yara,» which creates theatrical performances based on Ukrainian poetry.
Romana Soutus is a playwright, performer, and producer. She is the author and performer of the solo production «HYENA!,» which received several awards and was named the Best Experimental Show at the United Solo Festival in New York in 2016. Additionally, Romana is one of the authors of the documentary project «Diaries in Exile,» which tells the stories of Ukrainians who were forced to flee from Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Romana was also a participant in the New Georges Jam 2021 and a Lambda Literary fellow in 2017 for LGBTQ writers.
This is the first project of the NASHi experimental theater club. It is different from traditional theater in that it has no fixed location, resident troupe, or repertoire. Instead, NASHI.etc functions as a theater talent accelerator. Its role is to assist artists in realizing their creative ideas by providing a venue, equipment, informational and organizational support, expert guidance, and international representation.
NASHi.etc was founded by Ukrainian theater expert Romana Soutus and Sofia Yushchenko, who has become the theater's executive director. The idea for NASHi.etc was inspired by the famous New York avant-garde theater La MaMa, where founder Romana Soutus worked for a long time. NASHi.etc is set to become La MaMa's partner in Ukraine. Its artistic director Mia Yoo is also part of the consultative group that will participate in future workshops and other events for Ukrainian experimental theater.
La MaMa is an experimental theater club in New York founded in 1961. It played a significant role in the careers of many renowned artists, including Sam Shepard, Julie Taymor, Diane Lane, and Harvey Fierstein. The theater has collaborated with actors such as Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Danny DeVito, and more. In the 1960s, La MaMa was part of the Off Off Broadway movement, which showcased new avant-garde and experimental productions, and it is the only theater from that movement that still exists today. The theater also includes the artistic group «Yara,» which creates theatrical performances based on Ukrainian poetry.
Romana Soutus is a playwright, performer, and producer. She is the author and performer of the solo production «HYENA!,» which received several awards and was named the Best Experimental Show at the United Solo Festival in New York in 2016. Additionally, Romana is one of the authors of the documentary project «Diaries in Exile,» which tells the stories of Ukrainians who were forced to flee from Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Romana was also a participant in the New Georges Jam 2021 and a Lambda Literary fellow in 2017 for LGBTQ writers.
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