MAPS OF FEAR / MAPS OF IDENTITY. Polish-Ukrainian Performative Project –work session in Lviv, May 2016

MAPS OF FEAR / MAPS OF IDENTITY. Polish-Ukrainian Performative Project – work session in Lviv, May 2016

The first work session of the Polish-Ukrainian performative project “Maps of Fear/Maps of Identity” was held between 23 and 27 May 2016. The events of the session took place in the Les Kurbas Lviv Academic Theatre [Львівський академічний театр імені Леся Курбаса / Львів], the First Stage of Contemporary Dramaturgy “Drama.UA”[Перша сцена сучасної драматургії “Драма.UA”], the Centre for the Urban History of East and Central Europe [Центр міської історії Центрально-Східної Європи], and in the city space of Lviv.

The session included directing and dramaturgy as well as acting workshop, taught by Łukasz Chotkowski, director and dramaturge; Krzysztof Szekalski, actor and playwright; and Joanna Wichowska, curator and dramaturge. The workshops focused on the role of the director and the dramaturge in contemporary theatre; the subjectivity of the actor; the use of documentary material and the personal experience of participants in theatrical work. The central issue during the workshop was fear as a cornerstone of identity for Europeans on both sides of the Schengen border.

38 participants – directors, dramaturges, playwrights, actors, and theatre theoreticians, from all over Ukraine (Lviv, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Odessa, Zaporozhye, Simferopol, Poltava, Donetsk, Khmelnytskyi) took part in the workshop. They were selected by a group of Polish and Ukrainian experts from among 98 applicants [OPEN CALL LINK].

The workshops included presentations and discussions of the transcripts of Polish projects and theatrical productions created on the basis of the personal experience of the authors and situated at the intersection of theatrical art and social life (such as the play “Serdeczny”by Krzysztof Szekalski and Aleksandra Jakubczak, or “Widows of Vrindavan” by Łukasz Chotkowski and Magda Fertacz, produced in cooperation with Indian artists). An important issue was the role of the artist in times of a crisis and the practical staging solutions for the themes of the project. The participants worked on performances concerning fear and identity in groups of directors-dramaturges-artists.

Public events were also held as part of the session. These included two lectures entitled “Polish theatre and visual arts: constructing identity” by Dr Marcin Kościelniak (PL), a theatre critic, analyst of perfomative and visual arts, and lecturer at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and the debate “Artists in times of political upheavals: the experience of Poland and Ukraine”, with Marcin Kościelniak; Dr Iryna Starovoyt (UA), a literary historian, poet, translator, and philosopher; and Ievgenia Nesterovych (UA), cultural manager, art critic and journalist. Using the examples of selected works of Polish theatre and visual artists working in the 1980s as well as at present, Marcin Kościelniak outlined the consequences of artistic choices made in times of political upheavals. The participants and members of the audience discussed the choices made by artists in critical historical moments and the impact of artistic actions on the construction of contemporary identity narrations.

The session concluded with a three-hour Theatre Jam Session, in which the participants presented the work they created during the workshops. The result of the workshops was 11 artistic statements on fear and identity: performances, stage etudes, instances of storytelling, theatre, mini-plays, and street interventions performed in the city space of Lviv and on the stage of the Les Kurbas Theatre. The participants of the Jam Session presented diverse interpretations of social reality, theatrical languages, methods of approaching the subjects, and ways of representing their own personal experience as artists and citizens living in a country in the state of war. This was the first performative event of this kind in Lviv, and was described by viewers as the most political theatrical statement in Ukraine over the recent years.

The first review of the Theatre Jam Session by Lviv journalist and researcher, Andriy Bondarenko (in Ukrainian): http://varianty.lviv.ua/35197-supermarket-strakhiv

The next work session will take place in Kharkiv between 13 and 17 July.

PARTICIPANTS OF THE WORK SESSION IN LVIV:

Directors, playwrights, dramaturges, theatre researchers:

1 Piotr Armianovskyi (Пьотр Армяновські), director, Kyiv

2 Rodion Krasnovid ( Родіон Красновид) director, composer, playright, Kherson

3 Dmytro Levickyi (Дмитро Левицький), playwright, Kyiv

4 Elizaveta Olijnyk (Єлизавета Олійник),  director, Kyiv

5 Iryna Garets (Ірина Гарець), playwright, Poltava

6 Dmytro Khusakov (Дмитро Гусаков), director, Kharkiv / Khmelnytskyi

7 Bohdan Logvynovskyi (Богдан Логвиновський), director, Kyiv

8 Olena Apchel (Олена Апчел), director, Kharkiv

9 Roza Sarkisian,(Роза Саркісян), director, Kharkiv

10 Liuba Kuibida (Люба Куйбіда), culturologist, theatre menager, Lviv / Kharkiv

11 Natalia Blok (Наталія Блок), playwright, Kherson

12 Olha Somova (Ольга Сомова), director, Kharkiv

13 Anastasija Kosodij (Анастасія Косодій), playwright, Zaporizhia

14 Anton Romanov (Антон Романов), director, Symferopol/Kyiv

15 Maksym Chernysh (Максим Черниш), director, Kyiv

16 Iulia Honchar (Юлія Гончар), playwright, Kyiv

17 Kristina Masalova (Крістіна Масалова), director, Odessa

18 Ksenya Kilpikova (Ксенія Кільпікова), director, Kyiv

19 Olha Maciupa (Ольга Мацюпа), playwright, Lviv

Acting Workshops:

1 Nina Khyzhna (Ніна Хижна), Kharkiv

2 Oksana Cherkashyna (Оксана Черкашина), Kharkiv

3 Kateryna Ponomarenko (Катерина Пономаренко), Kyiv

4 Oleksandr Oleshko (Олександр Олешко), Kharkiv

5 Yaroslav Fedorchuk (Ярослав Федорчук), Lviv

6 Alina Skorik (Аліна Скорик), Kyiv

7 Iryna Nirscha (Ірина Нірша), Kyiv

8 Olha Holoborodko (Ольга Голобородько), Kyiv

9 Ivan Makarenko (Іван Макаренко), Odessa

10 Anna Yepatko (Анна Єпатко), Lviv

11 Egor Martynenko (Єгор Мартиненко), Kharkiv

12 Vitalij Buryeev (Віталій Бурлєєв), Kharkiv

13 Tamara Goryscheli (Тамара Ґорґішелі), Lviv

14 Svitlana Lysovska (Світлана Лисовська), Lviv

15Yurij Khvostenko ( Юрій Хвостенко), Lviv

16 Bohdan Hrytsiuk (Богдан Грицюк), Lviv

17 Andrij Petruk (Андрій Петрук), Lviv

18 Natalia Mazur (Наталія Мазур), Lviv
19 Anastasija Lisovska (Анастасія Лісовська), Lviv

Images from the session by Maryana Pavlyuk and Roza Sarkisian can be viewed here.

The Polish-Ukrainian performative project “Maps of Fear / Maps of Identity” is realized by the Culture Practitioners Association (Stowarzyszenie Praktyków Kultury / Warsaw) together with numerous Ukrainian partner organizations and institutions and with the support of EEPAP and Polish Institute in Kyiv.
The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.

Curator of the project: Joanna Wichowska
Coordination in Ukraine: Lubov Ilnytska/Lviv
PR: Olya Mukhina /Lviv
Graphic Design: Grafprom Studio/ Kharkiv

Partners in Lviv:

Lviv Academic Les Kurbas Theatre, Lviv /  Львівський академічний театр імені Леся Курбаса, Львів;

Center of Urban History of East Central Europe, Lviv / Центр міської історії Центрально-Східної Європи, Львів;
Art Workshop Drabyna, Lviv / Мистецька майстерня “Драбина”, Львів;
Festival of Contemporary Dramaturgy “Drama.UA, Lviv / Фестиваль сучасної драматургії “Драма.UA”, Львів;
First Stage of  Contemporary Dramaturgy “Drama.UA, Lviv / Перша сцена сучасної драматургії “Драма.UA”, Львів;
Lesia Ukrainka Lviv Drama Theatre, Lviv / Львівський драматичний театр імені Лесі Українки, Львів;
Centre for Theatre Research and Education, Lviv / Центр театральних досліджень і освіти,  Львів

For further information and the full list of partners, click here.