Friday, 29 April 2016, 19:00

HAPPENING
“A STYLISH AND ELABORATE DINNER PARTY CONSISTING OF
GOURMET DISHES FROM WORLD’S BEST RESTAURANTS
LUXURIOUSLY SERVED AT A REASONABLE PRICE”

BY VALENTYNA PETROVA

Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique invite you to the happening by Valentyna Petrova, taking place on Friday, April 29, at 19:00.

The artist will present parts of the interactive installation, which are replicas of exclusive dishes, such as ostrich salad in apple-jack sauce, cold scallop julienne with avocado, red caviar, and truffle oil, etc. She will replace the ingredients, needed for the preparation of these dishes, with the masticated bread mush and food colouring. This gesture addresses an issue of poverty, the reverse and grotesque side of which is an aspiration to overconsumption. If you cannot afford desirable goods, you substitute it with the ersatz. The more remote in quality it is from the original, the lesser monetary value it has. Ersatz, substitute, is of no value for those, who are familiar with the original, but those, who cannot even think the original, imagine it as an inherently valuable, desirable, “undisclosed” product. That’s what it is for art, too: at the exhibition for the poor meals, manufactured by the artist, gain the status of art objects. At the same time, the artist realizes that as in art sphere a bread mush reveals one type of exclusiveness, it acquires another one, which can also be questioned.

Nauseating, masticated bread mush reminds us of the monstrosity of poverty itself: it is something we are ashamed of, something unworthy of us. As much as the fear of starvation, sickness, and homelessness disguises the fear of physical body’s death, the fear of poverty is actually the fear of exclusion and social body’s death.

Body liquids sacralize the object only in love, or religion. In her artistic act, the artist tries to reach similar transgression: visitors will be offered to buy and consume dishes, component-biding element of which is her saliva, for a small fee. Artist herself will have dinner with someone from the present, choosing objects directly from the installation. She argues that the ingestion of an art object, will contribute to rethinking of art, which in this case is a situation, process, action.

Valentyna Petrova is an artist, who works with the issues of corporality, precarity, poverty, explores social relations and communities. She was born in Khmelnytskyi, lives and works in Kyiv.

Admission is free

Supported by ERSTE Stiftung та Charles Stewart Mott Foundation:

Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC) was founded in 2008 as a platform for collaboration between academic, artistic, and activist communities. VCRC is an independent initiative, which is engaged in publishing, artistic activities, research, organization of public lectures, discussions, and conferences. In 2015 Visual Culture Research Center received the European Cultural Foundation’s Princess Margriet Award. Visual Culture Research Center was also an organizer of The School of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial 2015.

Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street, 1 floor)

Contacts:

+380676695457 Ganna Tsyba
+380639535143 Natalka Neshevets

4th International Contest “Stop Censorship! Citizens for free countries” announces the admission of works

The International Contest “Stop Censorship! Citizens for free countries” will be held for the fourth time this year and will last from April 22 until May 30, 2016.

The Contest joins activism and different kinds of creative practices. Traditionally, the Contest accepts works related to freedom of speech protection, access to public information, fighting censorship and works on a special topic.

This year the special topic of the Contest became “Corruption is…”.

Implementation of urgent reforms in Ukraine as in many other young democracies is delayed. The main reason for this is corruption. Freedom of speech, critical thinking, joint civil actions directed towards controlling the government can change the situation. Analysis of a problem and open dialogue are the first steps to be made to change the situation.

The works are accepted in 5 categories: image, text, poem, slogan and multimedia.

The Contest is very democratic. Everyone regardless of their age, citizenship and education can participate.

The works can be submitted in 4 languages: Ukrainian, the Crimean Tatar language, English and Russian.

The winners will be selected by 3 juries – expert jury, internet users jury and special jury.

The members of experts jury are: Alim Aliyev, Co-founder of “Crimea SOS”, Media consultant; Mykola Goncharov, Designer; Alisa Lozhkina, Editor in chief, Art Ukraine magazine; Natalia Synepupova, Designer, School of Visual Communications; Natalie Sokolenko, Journalist, Hromadske radio; Anastasia Stanko, Journalist, Hromadske.tv; Vladislav Troitsky, Director, producer and founder of GOGOLFEST.

The special jury consists of the representatives of anticorruption organizations and investigative journalists: Dmytro Gnap, Journalist, “Slidstvo.info” program; Oleksiy Khmara, Executive director of Transparency International Ukaine; Tetyana Pecklun, Member of a Board of Anticorruption Action Center; Natalie Sedletska, Journalist, “Schemes” TV program.

Organizers will hold public discussion and workshops on art activism. After the jury selects the winners their works will be exhibited in Kyiv and regions of Ukraine.

Contacts:
Anton Ivanov
+38050 494 58 30
cenzuri.stop@gmail.com

Oraganizers:

Partners:

Friday, 22 April 2016, 19:00
Film screening
Our Currency Is Information and From My Point of View
by Tactical Technology Collective

Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique invite you to the screening of films by Tactical Technology Collective, that will take place on Friday, April 22, at 19:00.

Our Currency Is Information and From My Point of View are the first two episodes of the documentary film series Exposing the Invisible by Tactical Tech. The digital age has profoundly transformed the way people find and share information. This has led to previously unimaginable possibilities in investigative reporting. Through a series of short films, video interviews, guides and resources, Exposing the Invisible looks at different techniques, tools and methods along with the individual practices of those working at the new frontiers of investigation.

In Our Currency Is Information Romanian journalist Paul Radu from the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project reveals methods of investigating corruption and organized crime. From My Point of View, rather than looking at professional investigative journalists, profiles three ‘investigators-in-the-making’ investigating issues ranging from weapon supply routes in Syria’s ‘YouTube conflict, urban land grabbing in post-conflict Beirut and how DIY aerial mapping can expose and challenge power relations in Jerusalem.

Tactical Tech is a non-profit organisation, working since 2003 to advance the use of information and digital technologies by advocates and activists worldwide. Based in Berlin, it works with an international network of partners and collaborators to help rights, accountability and transparency advocates and the communities they work with to use information and digital technologies effectively in their work.

An online talk with Marek Tuszynski, co-author of the films and creative director of TTC, will take place after the screening.

The screening is part of the research workshop Online Media as a Tool for Grassroots Politics, co-organized by Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique. On Thursday, April 21, at 19:00 the screening of Varta1, Lviv, Ukraine by Yuriy Hrytsyna will take place at VCRC within the framework of the workshop.

Admission is free

Supported by ERSTE Stiftung та Charles Stewart Mott Foundation:

Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC) was founded in 2008 as a platform for collaboration between academic, artistic, and activist communities. VCRC is an independent initiative, which is engaged in publishing, artistic activities, research, organization of public lectures, discussions, and conferences. In 2015 Visual Culture Research Center received the European Cultural Foundation’s Princess Margriet Award. Visual Culture Research Center was also an organizer of The School of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial 2015.

Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street, 1 floor)

Contacts:

+380676695457 Ganna Tsyba
+380639535143 Natalka Neshevets

Thursday, 21 April 2016, 19:00
Film screening
Varta1, Lviv, Ukraine by Yuriy Hrytsyna

Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique invite you to the screening of the film Varta1, Lviv, Ukraine by Yuriy Hrytsyna, that will take place on Thursday, April 21, at 19:00.

Varta1, Lviv, Ukraine is one of the most notable films at this year’s XIII Docudays International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, where it was awarded as part of the DocuLife contest. The film is set in Lviv during the first days after the fall of Yanukovych regime. Automaidan activists take over the functions of the oppressive police apparatus as soon as the latter withdraws from performing its work. The film is based on recordings of Automaidan participants’ conversations through Zello mobile application. But the most radical solution, that locates this film beyond “films about Maidan” genre, is its visual imagery, through which Yuriy Hrytsyna represents the operating principles of our memory rather than actual events.

A Skype talk with the author will take place after the screening.

Yuriy Hrytsyna is a photographer, student, and anthropologist. He lives and works in Lviv and Berlin.

Admission is free

Supported by ERSTE Stiftung та Charles Stewart Mott Foundation:

Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC) was founded in 2008 as a platform for collaboration between academic, artistic, and activist communities. VCRC is an independent initiative, which is engaged in publishing, artistic activities, research, organization of public lectures, discussions, and conferences. In 2015 Visual Culture Research Center received the European Cultural Foundation’s Princess Margriet Award. Visual Culture Research Center was also an organizer of The School of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial 2015.

Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street, 1 floor)

Contacts:

+380676695457 Ganna Tsyba
+380639535143 Natalka Neshevets

Sunday, 27 March 2016, 19:00
Discussion and video screening
Bridge and Gap

Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique invite you to the discussion and video screening Bridge and Gap taking place on Sunday, March 27, at 19:00.

The domination of “walls instead of bridges” emerges in different societies as an answer to refugees, neighboring military conflicts, poverty, or cultural difference. It is easier to imagine those who build walls than those destined to erect bridges. What kind of subjectivity has to take on this work? The starting point of the discussion is a video documentation of the performance The Meeting Point – Bridge, which took place within the framework of The School of the Lonesome of The School of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial 2015, and there suggested juxtaposition of mutual understanding and gaps, not destined to coalesce.

Participants: Vasyl Cherepanyn (Visual Culture Research Center), Angelina Kariakina (journalist, hromadske.tv), Ivan Melnychuk (artist, architect, Melnychuk-Burlaka Group), and Kateryna Yakovlenko (researcher, PinchukArtCentre). Moderated by Lesia Kulchynska (Visual Culture Research Center).

Admission is free

Supported by ERSTE Stiftung та Charles Stewart Mott Foundation:

Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC) was founded in 2008 as a platform for collaboration between academic, artistic, and activist communities. VCRC is an independent initiative, which is engaged in publishing, artistic activities, research, organization of public lectures, discussions, and conferences. In 2015 Visual Culture Research Center received the European Cultural Foundation’s Princess Margriet Award. Visual Culture Research Center was also an organizer of The School of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial 2015.

Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street, 1 floor)

Contacts:

+380676695457 Ganna Tsyba
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua

Sunday, 20 March 2016, 18:00
Lecture by Jakub Majmurek (Warsaw)
Towards a Topology of Essay Film

Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique invite to the lecture Towards a Topology of Essay Film by Jakub Majmurek.

In this lecture, Jakub Majmurek will outline a project for a topology of a specific film genre, which is an essay film. Starting from a historical, genealogical perspective, he will define essay film as a heterogenic form, bounded by strongly blurred frontiers. The heterogeneity in question can be found both in the formal aspects of essay films as well as in the range of topics and social contexts that form is taking. Mapping the frontiers of a genre of film essay would be crucial for this topological endeavor. The lecture will describe how essay film – as an artistic practice stemming from a field of cinema – is articulating itself in relation with other fields of social practices. A special emphasis will be put on three social fields – that of politics, that of art (or art-world) and that of science.

Jakub Majmurek is a philosopher, film critic, and political commentator. He regularly contributes to Wirtualna Polska, Krytyka Polityczna and other publications. He is an editor and co-author of numerous publications on topics ranging from political philosophy (among others, L’idée du communisme II) to cinema and contemporary art (most recently – Polish Cine Art).

The lecture will be delivered in English.

Admission is free

Picture: Harun Farocki. War at Distance (2003).

Supported by Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland

Supported by ERSTE Stiftung та Charles Stewart Mott Foundation:

Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC) was founded in 2008 as a platform for collaboration between academic, artistic, and activist communities. VCRC is an independent initiative, which is engaged in publishing, artistic activities, research, organization of public lectures, discussions, and conferences. In 2015 Visual Culture Research Center received the European Cultural Foundation’s Princess Margriet Award. Visual Culture Research Center was also an organizer of The School of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial 2015.

Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street, 1 floor)

Contacts:

+380676695457 Ganna Tsyba
+380639535143 Natalka Neshevets
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua

Saturday, 19 March 2016, 18:00
Conversation with Jakub Majmurek (political commentator, Warsaw)
What Does the Political Crisis in Poland Mean for Europe?

Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique invite to the conversation with political commentator Jakub Majmurek (Warsaw): What Does the Political Crisis in Poland Mean for Europe?

After the right-wing conservative party Law and Justice won the parliamentary elections in autumn 2015, a deep political and constitutional crisis had started in Poland, which lasts to this day. The ruling party’s attempts to block the activity of the Constitutional Court, take control of the public media and to increase the powers of the police provoke parallels with a whole range of authoritarian regimes that emerged in Europe during the current decade – from Hungary under Viktor Orban to Ukraine under Victor Yanukovych. Decline of Polish liberal democracy could become a turning point in the current crisis of the European Union, since Poland was in the last decades regarded as a model for a successful ‘postcommunist transformation’. But was this transformation really as successful as it was presented in places like Ukraine? Which social processes, conflicts and contradictions led to the overwhelming right-wing turn in Poland and its current political crisis?

Jakub Majmurek is a political commentator, philosopher, and film critic. He regularly contributes to Wirtualna Polska, Krytyka Polityczna and other publications. He is an editor and co-author of numerous publications on topics ranging from political philosophy (among others, L’idée du communisme II) to cinema and contemporary art (most recently – Polish Cine Art).

Discussion is moderated by Oleksiy Radynski

Working language – English

Admission is free

Supported by ERSTE Stiftung та Charles Stewart Mott Foundation:

Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC) was founded in 2008 as a platform for collaboration between academic, artistic, and activist communities. VCRC is an independent initiative, which is engaged in publishing, artistic activities, research, organization of public lectures, discussions, and conferences. In 2015 Visual Culture Research Center received the European Cultural Foundation’s Princess Margriet Award. Visual Culture Research Center was also an organizer of The School of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial 2015.

Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street, 1 floor)

Contacts:

+380676695457 Ganna Tsyba
+380639535143 Natalka Neshevets
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua

Tuesday, 8 March 2016, 18:30
DOCUMENTARY PERFORMANCE
IT PISSES ME OFF

Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique invite you to the documentary performance It Pisses Me Off by Mariam Agamyan, which will take place on Tuesday, March 8, at 18:30 at Plivka cultural space.

The 8th of March, International Day for Women’s Emancipation, is a great opportunity to articulate what pisses us off. Do we want to say it? It is something that remains untold on the everyday level, something that is not an issue for the media news. This project exists so that “it pisses me off” could be heard.

The organizers of the event invite everybody to share their reflections in the context of women’s fight for their rights and read out a text within the framework of the performance. For this purpose you need to send authorial or anonymous text to text.menya.besit@gmail.com up to and including March 7.

Readings will be followed by a discussion.

It Pisses Me Off documentary performance is taking place for the fourth time. The first reading was performed at Ukrainian Cosmos exhibition, the next two took place within The School of the Lonesome during The School of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial 2015. Every time the readings involve new participants and texts. The project is not exclusively a scenic practice – everyone who’s willing can participate. It Pisses Me Off is not about hating – the project is a space for articulation of personal and collective concerns.

Admission is free

The performance will be followed by a feminist concert-party The F Sounds: https://www.facebook.com/events/1014879751933149/

Address:
1, Vasylkivska Street (Holosiivska metro station)
Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre,
2 floor, Plivka cultural space

Supported by Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Kyiv

Supported by ERSTE Stiftung and Charles Stewart Mott Foundation:

Partners: Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre,
Plivka cultural space

Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC) was founded in 2008 as a platform for collaboration between academic, artistic, and activist communities. VCRC is an independent initiative, which is engaged in publishing, artistic activities, research, organization of public lectures, discussions, and conferences. In 2015 Visual Culture Research Center received the European Cultural Foundation’s Princess Margriet Award. Visual Culture Research Center was also an organizer of The School of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial 2015.

Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street, 1 floor)

Contacts:

+380676695457 Ganna Tsyba
+380639535143 Natalka Neshevets
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua

February 26 – March 27, 2016
Exhibition by Melnychuk-Burlaka Group
BETTER, WORSE, EVEN WORSE

Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique invite you to the Better, Worse, Even Worse exhibition by Melnychuk-Burlaka Group, which will open on February 26, at 19:00 and will last until March 27.

In Better, Worse, Even Worse project Ivan Melnychuk and Oleksandr Burlaka use key notions from architecture and urban studies for the interpretation of current political and military affairs. For example, how could it happen that in a political vocabulary the notion of “bridge” started referring to “friendship”, “unity”, “agreement”? After all, from the perspective of architectural history, bridge is, above all, a military tool serving for the expansion to new territories and establishment of effective control over them. The starting point for the project is a current propagandist project of constructing a bridge over Kerch Strait, which has to link occupied Crimea with Russian Federation.

The project is based on a work made for the exhibition Phone Calls from the Cemetery and Other Stories: An Exhibition Against the Covert War in Ukraine at the Academy of the Arts of the World, Cologne (curators – Ekaterina Degot and David Riff).

“The idea of linking two points on the straight line is the realization of mathematical abstraction. The main function of the bridge has been the same – to give war prisoners a work. The following promise of economic miracle is driven by the imitation of a sacrifice. Contemporary super bridges are enormous altars over the sea of blood.”

“The bridge over our heads links Russia with Europe. It is the bridge between two “welfares”. Countries in between are understood by Europe and Russia as dressings supplementing main course.”

Melnychuk-Burlaka Group

The exhibition is open daily from 13:00 to 20:00, Monday – closed.
Admission is free

Melnychuk-Burlaka Group was founded in 2013 (earlier Ivan Melnychuk and Oleksandr Burlaka were members of the Group of Objects). In their practice they question the role, ideology, and responsibility of an architect today. Melnychuk-Burlaka Group participated in the First Bergen Triennial (Bergen Assembly), in the exhibitions of PinchukArtCentre Art Prize nominees in 2013 and 2015, in the exhibition Phone Calls from the Cemetery and Other Stories at the Academy of the Arts of the World, Cologne etc. In 2014 the Island exhibition by Melnychuk-Burlaka Group took place at Visual Culture Research Center.

Oleksandr Burlaka is an architect and artist based in Kyiv, Ukraine. He is a Junior Research Fellow at the National Art Museum of Ukraine.

Ivan Melnychuk is an architect and artist based in Kyiv, Ukraine. He is a co-founder of Method foundation.

Supported by ERSTE Stiftung та Charles Stewart Mott Foundation:

Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC) was founded in 2008 as a platform for collaboration between academic, artistic, and activist communities. VCRC is an independent initiative, which is engaged in publishing, artistic activities, research, organization of public lectures, discussions, and conferences. In 2015 Visual Culture Research Center received the European Cultural Foundation’s Princess Margriet Award. Visual Culture Research Center was also an organizer of The School of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial 2015.

Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street, 1 floor)

Contacts:

+380676695457 Ganna Tsyba
+380639535143 Natalka Neshevets
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua

Friday, 19 February 2016, 19:00
Film screening
WAR IN KYIV

Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique invite you to the premiere screening of a collective film War in Kyiv, created during Kyiv Biennial 2015 within the framework of The School of Image and Evidence.

War in Kyiv is an experimental film shot during Artur Żmijewski’s workshop that took place at The School of Kyiv biennial in September 2015. The workshop was held in the form of a ‚conversation‘ between the participants that proceeded through short video statements. Every video created within the workshop was either an individual sentence, or a respond to other participant’s sentence. War in Kyiv is a collection of such statements, combined into a collective talk.

Co-authors of War in Kyiv: Vitaliy Atanasov, Angelina Kariakina, Ksenia Marchenko, Diana Poladova, Oleksiy Radynski, Ivanna Yakovyna, Artur Żmijewski.

A discussion moderated by Kateryna Sergatskova with participation of film co-authors will take place after the screening.

Artur Żmijewski is a filmmaker, artist, artistic editor of Political Critique project. He curated the 7th Berlin Biennial in 2012. In 2005 he represented Poland at Venice Biennial. His solo exhibition Democracies took place at Visual Culture Research Center in 2012.

Admission is free

Supported by ERSTE Stiftung та Charles Stewart Mott Foundation:

Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC) was founded in 2008 as a platform for collaboration between academic, artistic, and activist communities. VCRC is an independent initiative, which is engaged in publishing, artistic activities, research, organization of public lectures, discussions, and conferences. In 2015 Visual Culture Research Center received the European Cultural Foundation’s Princess Margriet Award. Visual Culture Research Center was also an organizer of The School of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial 2015.

Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street, 1 floor)

Contacts:

+380676695457 Ganna Tsyba
+380639535143 Natalka Neshevets
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua