Thursday, 19 March 2015, 19:00
Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street (1st floor), Kyiv)

Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique invite you to the screening of film The Motherhood Archives by Irene Lusztig, which will take place on Thursday, 19 March, at 19:00.

Archival montage, science fiction, and homage to 70s feminist filmmaking are woven together to excavate hidden histories of childbirth in the twentieth century. Assembling an archive of over 100 educational, industrial, and medical training films, The Motherhood Archives inventively untangles the complex, sometimes surprising genealogies of maternal education. From the first use of anesthetic ether in the 19th century to the postmodern 21st century hospital birthing suite, The Motherhood Archives charts a course through the cultural history of pain, the history of obstetric anesthesia, and the little-known international history of the natural childbirth and Lamaze movements. Revealing a world of intensive training, rehearsal, and performative preparation for the unknown that is ultimately incommensurate with experience, The Motherhood Archives becomes a meditation on the maternal body as a site of institutional control, ideological surveillance, medical knowledge, and nationalist state intervention. The film works both, as a feminist recuperation of obsolete maternal histories, and as a visual analysis of the persistent disciplining of the pregnant / laboring body.

Irene Lusztig is a filmmaker, media archeologist, and visual artist. Her film and video work mines old images and technologies for new meanings in order to reframe, recuperate, or reanimate the forgotten and neglected stories. Using hybrid formal strategies and combining visual textures (including digital video, Super 8 and 16mm film, and found / archival materials) her work investigates the production of personal, collective, and national memories.

Admission is free

The screening will take place within the frameworks of feminist program that is taking place at VCRC from 3rd to 19th of March

Supported by ERSTE Stiftung, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Ukraine

Media partners:

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 and artistic activities, scientific research, organization of public lectures, discussions, and conferences. In 2015 Visual Culture Research Center received the European Cultural Foundation’s Princess Margriet Award.

Contacts:

+380631481204 (Nazariy Sovsun)
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua

Wednesday, 18 March 2015, 19:00
Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street (1st floor), Kyiv)

Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique invite you to the presentation of gender studies anthology Image, Body, Order, which will take place on Wednesday, 18 March, at 19:00.

Why do we discuss gender? Actually, why do we still discuss it? Why are we still confronted by latent, or explicit, rejection of this concept and, generally, topics related to gender?

The anthology Image, Body, Order, issued by MEDUSA publishing house, is an attempt to answer these questions, being at the same time evidence of their paradoxical nature. On the one hand, serious gender studies have existed and significantly influenced the contemporary humanities for decades. On the other hand, the concept of gender in the public debate on society, science, and art is still often perceived with mistrust.

Image, Body, Order is an anthology of academic texts on gender issues in different areas of knowledge: economics, medical science, architecture, law, literature, photography etc. The main purpose of the publication is to introduce to Ukrainian readers new, as yet untranslated research works, particularly those from German-speaking part of gender studies, which to this day remain insufficiently represented in the Ukrainian academic context. The materials present wide thematic range: from feminist jurisprudence, to intersexuality, eating disorders, and the gender aspects of architecture.

The anthology will be presented by the editor Kateryna Mishchenko, translators Olesya Bondarenko and Lesya Kulchynska, and researcher Mariya Mayerchyk.

Olesya Bondarenko is a scholar of literature, translator, researcher of contemporary American poetry at Kyiv National Linguistic University.

Mariya Mayerchyk (PhD in History) is an ethnologist, who specializes in cultural anthropology, history of culture, gender and queer issues. She is the author of the book Body and Ritual. Structuralist and Semantic Analysis of Family Ceremonies in Ukraine.

Kateryna Mishchenko is a translator and essayist, co-founder of MEDUSA publishing house.

Lesya Kulchynska is a theorist of culture, member of Visual Culture Research Center.

Admission is free

The lecture will take place within the frameworks of feminist program that is taking place at VCRC from 3d to 19th of March

Organization partner – MEDUSA publishing house

Supported by ERSTE Stiftung, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Ukraine

Media partner:

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 and artistic activities, scientific research, organization of public lectures, discussions, and conferences. In 2015 Visual Culture Research Center received the European Cultural Foundation’s Princess Margriet Award.

Contacts:

+380631481204 (Nazariy Sovsun)
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua

Saturday, 14 March 2015, 17:00
Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street (1st floor), Kyiv)

Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique invite you to the lecture by a historian Kateryna Dysa, which will take place on Saturday, 14 March, at 17:00.

Hostile attitude towards the manifestations of sexuality, especially female and extramarital, evolved during the first centuries of Christianity. Such attitude was later taken up by secular courts, which criminalized some types of extramarital intimate relationships. In the records of Ukrainian courts – both secular and religious – there are many cases on sexual «deviations», including adultery as one of the prevailing. In her lecture Kateryna Dysa will examine the specific character of such cases: under what circumstances relationships, which were secret by definition, became apparent, who would most likely become accused, and why was the punishment disproportionate to «crime».

Kateryna Dysa holds a PhD in history, is lecturer at the National University of «Kyiv-Mohyla Academy», and fellow researcher at the Center for Polish and European Studies. Her research interests are oriented in historical anthropology: history of witchcraft, history of family, history of childhood, as well as history of healthcare, ideas, and imagination. She is the author of books History of Everyday Life in Early Modern Europe, and History of Witches. Trials of Necromancy in Ukrainian Voivodships of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 17–18 centuries.

Admission is free

The lecture will take place within the frameworks of feminist program that is taking place at VCRC from 3rd to 19th of March

Supported by ERSTE Stiftung, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Ukraine

Media partner:

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 and artistic activities, scientific research, organization of public lectures, discussions, and conferences. In 2015 Visual Culture Research Center received the European Cultural Foundation’s Princess Margriet Award.

Contacts:

+380631481204 (Nazariy Sovsun)
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua

Thursday, 12 March 2015, 19:00
Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street (1st floor), Kyiv)

Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique invite you to the discussion Women, Parties, Quotas: How to Achieve Gender Equality in Politics?, which will take place on Thursday, 12 March, at 19:00.

In 2015 all Ukrainian authorities had to include not less than 30 % of women. At least these were the liabilities, which Ukraine pledged before the UN. However, currently nearly 90 % of members of our parliament are men. Ukrainian President and some political experts motivate the increase of women in politics for the reason that it will help to «achieve peace, wisdom», to «fight corruption». It seems that our officials lack political will, have no idea about the mechanisms of implementation of such reforms, and even don’t understand the very idea of gender equality, needed for the guarantee of the real access of women to politics and power.

This discussion aims to clarify the purposes for gender equality in governmental bodies, consider the mechanisms of «positive discrimination», implementation of gender quotas, and changes in the election law, and to highlight the relevant experience of reforms in the world.

Participants:

Tamara Martsenyuk is a Doctor of Sociology, Professor at the Sociology Department (National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy), who teaches the course Gender and Politics.

Olena Yena is a Senior Manager of Women – leaders program (National Democratic Institute).

Zakhar Popovych is a Doctor of Economics, activist of Left Opposition socialist union, co-author of a draft statute of the party of social revolution, which involves extensive use of gender quotas.

Moderator – Olha Vesnyanka

Admission is free

The discussion will take place within the frameworks of feminist program which will last at VCRC from the 3d until the 19th of March

Supported by ERSTE Stiftung, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Ukraine

Media partner:

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 and artistic activities, scientific research, organization of public lectures, discussions, and conferences. In 2015 Visual Culture Research Center received the European Cultural Foundation’s Princess Margriet Award.

Contacts:

+380631481204 (Nazariy Sovsun)
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua

Friday, 6 March 2015, 18:00
Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street (1st floor), Kyiv)

Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique invite you to the opening of exhibition Motherhood, which will take place on Friday, 6 March, 18:00.

Exhibition Motherhood suggests a feminist perspective on such traditional woman «function» as giving birth and raising a child. Which maternal experiences are hidden from publicity? What efforts have to be made for the sake of formation and development of a new human being? How is the topic of motherhood revealed in the work of female artists, even though giving birth often makes them put creative work on the back burner? What does the potential opportunity of becoming a mother mean to every woman? These and other issues will be questioned in the works of artists from Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Moldova, Hungary, Austria, and Sweden.

Analyzing the role and status of mothers in the society, the exhibition represents motherhood as a hard corporal and mental work that makes our existence possible. The dialogue with mothers is a dialogue with the history of one’s own life, which deserves to be a public issue.

Participants
Oksana Briukhovetska, Anna Fabricius, Tatiana Fiodorova, Marta Frej, Ksenia Gnylytska, Masha Godovannaya, Elżbieta Jabłońska, Alina Jakubenko, Alina Kleitman, Joanna Rajkowska, Emma Thorsander, Marina Vinnik, Anna Witt

Curator
Oksana Briukhovetska

Series of events related to feminist topics will take place within the frameworks of the exhibition:

7 March, 19:00 – Film screening in partnership with Festival of film and urbanism «86» – The Punk Singer by Sini Anderson
8 March, 20:00 – Feminist party W Sounds
12 March, 19:00 – Discussion Women, Parties, Quotas: How to Achieve Gender Equality in Politics
14 March, 17:00 – Lecture by Kateryna Dysa: Feamale Sexuality in the 18th century Ukraine: Non-Symmetrical Answers from Jurisprudence
18 March, 19:00 – Presentation of gender studies anthology Image. Body. Order with the participation of Mariya Mayerchyk
19 March, 19:00 – Closing film: The Motherhood Archives by Irene Lusztig

Admission is free

Supported by ERSTE Stiftung, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Ukraine

Project partners:

Media partner:

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 and artistic activities, scientific research, organization of public lectures, discussions, and conferences. In 2015 Visual Culture Research Center received the European Cultural Foundation’s Princess Margriet Award.

Contacts:
+380631481204 (Nazariy Sovsun)
+380964929600 (Natalka Neshevets)

vcrc@vcrc.org.ua
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua

Wednesday, 4 March 2015, 19:00
Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street (1st floor), Kyiv)

Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique invite you to the presentation of Ukrainian translation of a book Reflexive Sociology with participation of Anastasia Riabchuk and Yaroslav Hrytsak, which will take place on Wednesday, 4 March, at 19:00.

Reflexive Sociology is the first Ukrainian introduction to the scientific contribution of the most outstanding French sociologist of the 20th century Pierre Bourdieu (1930 – 2002). The book is based on a seminar held at the University of Chicago with the purpose of familiarization of the American public with theoretical and methodological principles of his research. In a dialogue with his student and colleague Loic Wacquant Bourdieu explains the meaning of his key concepts, responds to criticism, and draws special attention to the importance of reflexivity and inclusion of the theory of intellectual practice into wider social theory.

Analyzing his scientific methodology, Bourdieu makes a set of conclusions about political and emancipatory potential of social sciences and its confines, role of intellectuals in the reproduction of symbolic violence and instruments of struggle against it, reflects on the problem of determinacy of “free choice” and possibilities of the extension of freedom.

The book will be presented by its translator Anastasia Riabchuk and historian Yaroslav Hrytsak.

Anastasia Riabchuk is a sociologist and teacher at the Department of Sociology (Kyiv-Mohyla Academy). She is also a fellow researcher at the Department of Social Change (University of Johannesburg).

Yaroslav Hrytsak is a historian and publicist, Professor of History (Ukrainian Catholic University), Senior Editor of Ukraina Moderna journal.

Moderator – Lesia Kulchynska

Admission is free

Organization partner – MEDUSA Publishing House

Supported by ERSTE Foundation and Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

Media partner:

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 and artistic activities, scientific research, organization of public lectures, discussions, and conferences. In 2015 Visual Culture Research Center was awarded the European Cultural Foundation’s Princess Margriet Award.

Contacts:

+38096 4929600 (Nataliya Neshevets)
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua

Tuesday, 3 March 2015, 19:00
Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street (1st floor), Kyiv)

On the occasion of International Women’s Day and the 100th anniversary of the beginning of First World War, Visual Culture Research Center, Institut français d’Ukraine, and Political Critique invite you to the lecture by women’s history researcher Françoise Thébaud, which will take place on Tuesday, 3 March, at 19:00.

Long and deadly, First World War was not only men’s business. The lecturer will consider chronology and forms of mobilization of women, their challenges (loneliness, mourning, poverty, sexual violence), their patriotic and pacifist attitudes and duties, consequences of war for every person, and the changing role of women in society. Referring to the examples from French history, she will also make comparisons with the contexts of other Western European countries.

Françoise Thébaud is an Honorary Professor of contemporary history at the University of Avignon, Fellow Researcher at the Institute for Gender Studies of Geneva University. She is also a co-editor of the journal Clio. Women, Gender, History, author of the books How to Write about Women’s History and Gender (2007), Women at First World War (2013), and editor of the anthology History of Western Women. Volume 5, 20th century translated into many languages. At the moment, she is working on biography of Marguerite Thibert (1886 – 1982) – Doctor of Philology, pacifist, feminist, women’s labour expert at International Labour Organization.

Admission is free

Working language – French, with consecutive interpretation into Ukrainian

The lecture will take place within the frameworks of feminist program which will last at VCRC from the 3d until the 19th of March

Supported by ERSTE Stiftung, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Ukraine

Organization partner:

Media partner:

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 and artistic activities, scientific research, organization of public lectures, discussions, and conferences. In 2015 Visual Culture Research Center received the European Cultural Foundation’s Princess Margriet Award.

Contacts:

+380631481204 (Nazariy Sovsun)
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua

Wednesday, February 25th 2015, 19:00
Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street (1st floor), Kyiv)

Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique invite you to the lecture by an urban researcher Nadia Parfan, which will take place on Wednesday, February 25th at 19:00.

Is it possible to learn from the urban theories of the past centuries? In what way can we dream about ideal post-Soviet Kyiv? This lecture is about the evolution of utopian thinking in the theory and practice of Soviet urban planning. We will consider the Soviet urban utopia within the wide context of Western modernity – from Thomas More and Charles Fourier to contemporary utopist David Harvey. It will help us to follow the evolution of the utopian projects of Soviet urbanism – from the “flying cities” in the revolutionary 1920s to Slavutych, Rusanivka and typical microdistricts in the late Soviet period. We will also examine spatial transformations of these projects during the last decades and will try to see whether the utopia of post-Soviet cities has any chances to be fulfilled.

Nadia Parfan studied culture studies at National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Kyiv) and social anthropology at Central European University (Budapest). In 2012 – 2013 she was a Fulbright scholar and guest researcher at the Department of Geography and Urban Studies at Temple University, Philadelphia. She is a co-founder of the Urban Film Festival “86” in Slavutych. Nadia is interested in documentary film, cultural infrastructure and everyday practices of urban residents.

Admission is free

The lecture will take place within the framework of the exhibition Superstructure, which is open at VCRC until the 28th of February

Supported by ERSTE Foundation and Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

Exhibition “Superstructure” takes place within the frameworks of Unrendered Spaces project

unrenderedspaces.tumblr.com

Project partners:

Media partner:

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 and artistic activities, scientific 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 (44 Hlybochytska Street (1st floor), Kyiv)

Contacts:

+38096 4929600 (Nataliya Neshevets)
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua

Sunday, Februaty 8th 2015, 19:00
Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street (1st floor), Kyiv)

Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique invite you to the lecture by an Austrian curator Georg Schöllhammer, which will take place on Sunday, February 8th, at 19:00.

Georg Schöllhammer will talk about Local Modernities – a long-term international research project, founded in 2002 and dedicated to the architecture and urban development of Soviet modernism, their social and ideological origins. The project opposes conventional prejudice against Soviet urbanism, arguing for a research of the urban planning approach that is deeply rooted in the blueprint of the new socialist society. According to Georg, this continent of architecture, while marked by internal conflicts, is rich in genuine masterpieces that are waiting to be discovered and appreciated. The project is focused on the paradoxical nature of Soviet urbanism, with its insurmountable contradiction between progressive ideology of common public space and organization of municipal public utilities, between the imaginary space of power and real space of the Soviet daily life. This very contradiction, according to the authors of the project, contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Local Modernities is an ongoing research project, which previously took place in Vienna, Istanbul and Sao Paulo. Georg Schöllhammer will elaborate on its current results and plans for the next years.

Georg Schöllhammer is an editor, writer, and curator based in Vienna. He has worked internationally on cultural projects including Documenta, Manifesta, Transits, initiated and taken part in numerous independent art initiatives over the past 15 years. He is the curator of Arsenale 2015, together with Hedwig Sachsenhuber.

Admission is free

The lecture will take place within the framework of the exhibition Superstructure, which will take place at VCRC until the 28th of February

Supported by ERSTE Foundation and Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

Exhibition “Superstructure” takes place within the frameworks of Unrendered Spaces project

unrenderedspaces.tumblr.com

Project partner:

Media partner:

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 and artistic activities, scientific 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 (44 Hlybochytska Street (1st floor), Kyiv)

Contacts:

+38096 4929600 (Nataliya Neshevets)
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua

Wednesday, February 11th 2015, 19:00
Visual Culture Research Center (44 Hlybochytska Street (1st floor), Kyiv)

Visual Culture Research Center and Political Critique invite you to a lecture by culture critic Olga Papash, which will take place on Wednesday, February 11th, at 19:00.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Soviet Union experienced a housing boom. This period is usually connected with an unprecedented burst of mass prefabricated building. One of the most well-known types of low-cost, paneled apartment building was the the notorious khrushchovka. To a large extent, khrushchovkas and other prefabricated buildings determined the architectural portrait of the epoch, in particular, as it was represented in film. This kind of focus would set off most individual achievements of Soviet architects. In addition, mass perception of typical architecture dramatically changed from delight to neglect during some two decades. In her lecture, Olga Papash will consider this iconic shift, exemplifying it by both famous and little-known films of the period. She will also speak on the transformation of representative strategies towards the end of the 1970s.

Olga Papash is a culture studies scholar, film critic, essayist, and translator. She received her MA degree in cultural studies from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. In the course of her postgraduate research, she analyzed the strategies of representation of collective trauma in cinema. She worked as a film historian at the National Oleksandr Dovzhenko Center and researched Soviet Ukrainian cinema of the 1920s and 1980s for two years. Olga Papash is the author of numerous articles on art and film. She is also a member of the Ukrainian editorial board of Political Critique magazine.

Admission is free

The lecture will take place within the frameworks of the exhibition Superstructure, which will take place at VCRC until the 28th of February

Supported by ERSTE Foundation and Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

Exhibition “Superstructure” takes place within the frameworks of Unrendered Spaces project

unrenderedspaces.tumblr.com

Project partner:

Media partner:

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 and artistic activities, scientific 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 (44 Hlybochytska Street (1st floor), Kyiv)

Contacts:

+38096 4929600 (Nataliya Neshevets)
www.facebook.com/vcrc.org.ua
vcrc@vcrc.org.ua