The Days of Performance Art in Lviv & MediaDepo

Within all genres of contemporary art in Ukraine the performance and  media art  are the least popularised. Thus, there is the possibility for their independent development.

Currently in our country only the MediaDepo project  can provide the opportunity to look through  the latest video works of the  world's leading new media art festivals.  For the space of four years  the  Days of Performance Art in Lviv festival  still remains  the only one  festival of performance art  in Ukraine and the  School of Performance  is also  the only-lonely  opportunity for young artist  to learn the basics of the kind of art that is completely ignored by educational institutions.

So, the city of Lviv  is  still considered to be an experimental  territory for  the implementation  of contemporary art into  Ukrainian culture, a  laboratory to become a birthplace for future “big names” or just  an  object for  hopes.

For the first time the MediaDepo  and  the Days ...  were held as the self-sufficient festivals  but not as the” ingredients”  within the  complex structure of the Tyzhden/Week of Contemporary Art (the Tyzhden itself  last year was transformed into biennale). Yet, the festival programme was enriched by  complementary projects, such as: the  exhibitions by  Kaufman-Suslenko or Sambosyj-Futymskyj-Radkevych;  the DrumTyatr  concert; the PhotoClub 5x5 presentations;   public debates  or street-art projects by the UBIK  art media group.

The Festivals have shown that they can exist independently, they can interact and evolve.  The programme was intensive but at the same time,  it presented  you the happy  opportunity  to be in time  for  all the planned  actions.

So, a little of everything:

MediaDepo

This year the MediaDepo slogan -  Why Is Prometheus  Suffering?  In 2011 humanity celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first man in space and at the same time, the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.

The Festival was started on 28 August with  the lecture by  Bohdan Shumylovych (in the near future to be online at  Dzyga site) and it was ended on  4 September with the  master class  on the use of software for creating contemporary art conducted by Pavel Janicky.
The rest of time within those two dates was occupied by  media installations presented in the basement of the Museum of Ideas (over a dozen retro-monitors were  demonstrating  video works from   new media art festivals);  the evening shows by the Semiconductor, British project;   street  media art by the artists from Kyiv - Alina Yakubenk,  Denys Selivanov and  the Ubik  group (forbidden by Lviv  police as it normally "should be"  with  protest genres);  the WRO and Ars Electronica  festivals' presentations;   the  audiovisual performance by Pavel Janicky  involving the saxophonist Mykhailo Baloh.
 

Complementary Projects

Quite apropos accompaniments to the Festivals have occurred to be exhibitions, concerts and discussions.
The Festivals for the first time have managed to combine: -  Vlodko Kaufman's installations  & Oleh Suslenko's  paintings  in the joint  exhibition  at the Lviv  Palace of  Arts; the street  installations by Yevgen Samborskyj & the graffiti by  Yaroslav Futymskyj and Sergiy  Radkevych in the LIMIT  project at the Dzyga Gallery;  the art of photography & performance at the PhotoClub 5x5 ; the  video art by Yevgen  Samborskyj &  the DrumTyatr  (Izdryk,  Semenchuk, "John", "Lyolik") vocal creativity, as well as radically opposing points of views  on the performance, the role of art and arguments while the debates  of the artists from Israel, Poland, Russia and Ukraine.
 

The Days of Performance Art in Lviv

This year the Festival has reached the maximum quantity of the audience interested in it and it can be truly  recognised to be quite a self-sufficient one.  The performances were presented by:  Tamar Raban, Beni Kori, Ya'acov  Chefetz and Kineret Max from  Israel , Joanna Ogrodnik, Sylvester Pyasetsky Michal Dyakovski, Janusz Baldyga, Waldemar Tatarchuk from Poland, the Siniye Nosy (Alexandr Shaburov & Vyacheslav Mizin) from Russia. Ukraine was represented by the Lviv artists, known performers:   Vlodko Kaufman, Myroslaw Wajda, Volodymyr Topiy, Mykhailo Barabash and Vasyl Bazhay.

To my mind, it's really a thankless task and  even a harmful one to describe performances. Presenting your own version,  at the same time you  impose your own keys to open the  secrets the performer himself is not ready to reveal. Besides, describing verbally the memories concerning the "momentary art" - it's a sort of exhumation, isn't it?

So, here are the photos  for your associative reflections and soon -  there will be videos.

The School of Performance

This year's “School" has gathered 50 "students" from Kyiv, Donetsk, Lutsk, Vinnytsa,  Warsaw, Uzhgorod, Ternopil and Lviv  involving all age groups and professions: from teenagers to “experienced”  people, from artists and actors to economists, journalists and programmers.

The School’s unchallengeable initiator and curator  Janusz Baldyga  was joined by  Waldemar Tatarchuk and Tamar Raban.

Just not to overdo with compliments I’d like to state that  Janusz Baldyga was extremely pleased and said that half of the performances shown by students should  be a little polished and then they would be ready to be presented at major contemporary art  festivals.  And believe me, someone who, as Mr. Baldyga  is an undeniable connoisseur in the art of performance

By the way, the audio interview with Janusz Baldyga HERE

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INTERVIEW  WITH BOHDAN SHUMYLOVYCH / Coordinator MediaDepo, art historian :.

Extracts

....Are there no media art festivals in Ukraine? No, they were, but there are no any more now.

 And what's about the media art in our country? We had, and quite a good one. For example, some Polish curators were sure that media-arts were dominating in Ukraine. The explanation is simple - the end of the last century(the 90's) was distinguished by active experiments: almost all artists  ( the so-called "maitre"  being engaged in various art genres)  this or that way were applying  new technologies. But now - it's a problem.  Young artists seem to be not able  to keep pace with time. At last (alas!)  this year three Ukrainian artists have managed to take participation in the WRO.   

What do we need to hold a full-fledged media art festival? So, I think - nothing. Nothing is lacking. Generally, we've got everything - as the material to present,  as the audience to accumulate that material.  Just quite serious financial and some  organizational moments ....

IINTERVIEW  WITH VLODKO KAUFMAN / Coordinator the Days of Performance Art in Lviv, curator Dzyga Gallery

Extracts

....This year the "students" of the School of Performance were very active and some of them presented themselves as real masters, I mean,  we can admit some particular thinking,   some  individual technologies,   as well as a sort of some peculiar style. So, we  are ready to state that  we've GOT the team  of young Ukrainian artists  interested in the performance genre.  Thus, we've decided that next year the Tyzhden/ Week of Contemporary Art - 2012 will include the most potential  ideas presented by the School of Performance -2011 (previously we'll help the artists to evolve their "offsprings"). And the new generation of Ukrainian performers will  be "at your disposal".

....The most distinguished privilege of the Days of Performance Art in Lviv is an opportunity to compare different approaches to performance art. This year you could feel a strong divergence between performers from Ukraine & Israel, from Russia & Poland.

.... It would be particularly interesting  to invite performers from Japan or  China or Indonesia, there are very interesting performers there, with a completely different way of thinking and technologies.

...  In Ukraine there are no artists at all engaged exclusively in performance art. Sure, many artists can work as performers, but we should admit that it's an " accessory" genre for them.

.... Lviv artists are more "attached" to the performance, they understand it as a genre and  oftentimes they implement it.

...This year has revealed that there were no casual viewers at the Days...The Dzyga, the  Institute of Contemporary Art, the Polish Institute in Kyiv - all together  we've managed to  "grow" the audience.

....The Tyzhden/Week of Contemporary Art Week 2012 subject / topic will be - The Incertitude.  So, the idea of the  uncertainty will be present within  all projects, performances and the  MediaDepo actions.

PHOTO GALLERY  >>

The Days of Performance Art in Lviv Festival  is supported by the Development of Ukraine Rinat Akhmetov Fund /the  i³ [idea - impulse - innovation] programme.

Festivals Organisers: Institute of Contemporary Art, Dzyga Art Association , Polish Institute in Kyiv, Embassy of the State of Israel to Ukraine, Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, NGO Virmenska - Trydtsyat Pyat, Museum of Ideas, Lviv City Council, British Council Ukraine, WRO Center,  TransKultura Foundation, Lviv Palace of Arts

Photo: Yurko Dyachyshyn, Vlodko Kaufman, Kostya Smolyaninov

Text: Yurko VovkoHon, Iryna  Shymon