The Kyiv International – Kyiv Biennial 2017 Program, Week 3

Friday, November 10, at 17:00 in his “Final Fantasy II – 21 Translations of Purpose in Japanese – 喜怒哀楽 Kidoairaku (Joy-Furious-Sadness-Pleasure)” an artist Hiroshi McDonald Mori (Japan) will consider the formal and structural methodologies in which Japanese society imports and exports an assortment of culture and ideology – from Ukiyo-e, 浮世絵 ,or, world of floating pictures, to Manga, RPG, mythology and the diverse religions of Japan. Admission is free.

At 19:00 at BURSA GALLERY (11-B Kostyantynivska St., metro Kontraktova Ploshcha) the opening of the group exhibition “Dance, Dance, Dance” will take place. The image of the rave, buried in the late nineties, was recently resurrected, now farther East than East Berlin. Kyiv is proclaimed to be one of its monasteries, newly discovered by western pilgrims, together with a riot, the square, democracy and all else that lies North of the Wall. The New East, a unique politico-poetic formation of freedom and vital energy, has become a reference point for those seeking life outside the fortress of the old world.

Dance, Dance, Dance, a research exhibition on the techno-rave renaissance and its effects, will focus on the political cartography of youth cultures, the mythologization of the vast space outside the E.U., and the production of a new territory-based concept of the New East, which is attempting to grasp the former Soviet states and the countries of the Warsaw Pact, working both within its manifestations in the metropole and its local reception. Locating the self-proclaimed “new Berlins,” the exhibition will take a look at the dance scene as a luminous symptom of social and political processes outside narrow definitions of Europe.

Participants: Mishka Bochkarёv (Ukraine), Maria Gorodeckaya (United Kingdom), Sergei Nikitin (Ukraine), Ihor Okuniev (Ukraine), Anna Ročňová (Czech Repurlic), Kirill Savchenkov (Russia), Aleksei Taruts (Russia), Vova Vorotniov (Ukraine), Yarema Malashchuk and  Roman Himey (Ukraine).

Curated by Serge Klymko.

The exhibition will last until December 11 and will be open on Tuesday– Sunday from 12:00 until 20:00. 

Saturday, November 11, at 12:00 at BURSA GALLERY (11-B Kostyantynivska St., metro Kontraktova Ploshcha) within the framework of the “Dance, Dance, Dance” exhibition there will be “Healthy Life: Beyond Your Wildest Dreams,” a music performance by Aleksei Taruts, a Russian artist who works with performative and situational practices that utilize musical forms as means of expression, and a way to question symbolic and cultural exchange. Admission is free.

13:00—19:00 the “mocumenta” project will be presented at the art workshop at 33 Soshenko Street. Soshenko 33 participated in documenta 14 as an artist collective and alternative space. In August 2017, there was a Soshenko 33 residency at Tokonoma space in Kassel in which they participated in the “Title on the Spot” project together with collectives from Kosovo, Belgium and Switzerland. These projects are collaborative practices, as well as an attempt to create a common “field” between collectives and initiatives emerging out of different contexts. Participants include: Mitya Churikov, Oleksandr Dolhiy, Dobrynia Ivanov, Taras Kovach, Natalia Matsenko, Anna Sorokovaya, Alina Yakubenko, Yuriy Yefanov (Ukraine). Admission is free. 

Sunday, November 12, at 14:00 there will be an audio tour by Pic Pic (Ukraine) within the experimental radio workshop, “The Case of Mendel Beilis.” In 1911 – 1913, there was a court case brought in Kyiv against Mendel Beilis, a clerk at a brick factory, for the killing of Andrei Yushchinsky, a 12-year-old boy. The accusation emphasized the ritual nature of the killing and imputed the desire to kill a Christian boy to Beilis, a Jew. This case was initiated by right-wing organizations (the Black Hundreds) and, despite experts and witnesses insisting on the absurdity of the accusation, was supported by a number of influential politicians in the Russian Empire. The tour will start at Zhovten cinema (26 Konstiantynivska St., metro Kontraktova Ploshcha). Single ticket price: 200 uah (for students and seniors – 150 uah). Tickets are available online after the registration or at Vagabond cafe: 7, Skovorody Street. Please present some form of ID.

17:00 at the Institute of Scientific, Technical and Economic Information, “UFO”(180 Antonovycha St., Lybidska Metro) there will be a film screening of the documentary Parko, about a car park that was converted into a green, fiery, and subversive space in the heart of Athens. The event includes a talk with the author of the film, artist and activist Clara Stella Hüneke (Berlin/Athens), entitled, “From Parking Space to Park.” The discussion will feature encounters between continuous and symbolic protest, specifically how neighbourhood grassroot groups merge with riots. Admission is free.

19:00 at the Institute of Scientific, Technical and Economic Information, “UFO” (180 Antonovycha St., Lybidska Metro) there will be a talk by Ioulia Mermigka(Greece), a researcher and adjunct lecturer in Film and Cultural Studies in the Media Department of the University of Athens, entitled, “An Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm against Nihilist Desire in the Social Field: The Greek Case and the Murder of Pavlos Fyssas.” The lecture will apply the theory of macro and micro politics of desire, nihilist lines of flight, and the notion of cancerous Bodies Without Organs by Deleuze and Guattari in the context of modern Greek history and contemporary nihilist strains in Greek society. The talk aims to promote a dialogue on the similarities and differences between the Greek and Ukrainian cases. Admission is free.