From 13 to 20 October, Lviv will host the joint Czech-Ukrainian project ‘Performance in Times of Crisis’. Over the course of a week, artists from Ukraine and the Czech Republic will work with bodily and performative practices, run workshops, and present the results of their collaboration at the Lviv Municipal Art Centre, the Urban Mobility Centre, and the Dzyga Art Centre. This was reported in a press release distributed by the Institute of Cultural Strategy.
The project ‘Performance in Times of Crisis’ is being delivered by the NGO Virmenska 35 and the Faculty of Fine Arts at Brno University of Technology, with support from the ZMINA:Resilience programme. It brings together artists from the Czech Republic and Ukraine with differing experiences of living through today’s crises. Ukrainians live every day in the conditions of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine and directly feel its impact on personal and public life, while Czech artists observe the war from a different distance. The collaboration becomes a space where these experiences can meet, be articulated, and be transformed into artistic practice.
The project unfolds in three stages, the first two of which have already taken place in the Czech Republic.
- From 28 August to 3 September, participants gathered for a residency at the Nová Perla cultural centre in Kyjov near Krasná Lípa. Over the week, they shared their own experiences, developed workshop concepts, and held open artistic events and performances every day.
- On 5–6 September in Prague, at Kafkárna – Centre for Art and Ecology UMPRUM, the next stage of the project took place, delivered in cooperation with the Festival of Naked Forms. Participants presented the results of their work and held workshops and performative events for the public.
The project will now continue in Ukraine. The Lviv programme will begin on 13 October. Over the week, workshops will take place at the Urban Mobility Centre and the Lviv Municipal Art Centre.
The results of the collaboration will be presented during a public programme at the Lviv Municipal Art Centre, the Urban Mobility Centre, and the Dzyga Art Centre.
Events in Lviv will feature Czech artists Martin Zetova, Kasha Potrokhosh, Sara Vollash, and Lenka Klodova, as well as Ukrainian artists Nataliia Shevchenko, Maryna Naumchuk, Maryna Gaba, and Yaryna Shumska.
The project will continue beyond the workshops and public presentations. Based on the results of their joint work, the participants plan to create a printed zine inspired by the tradition of instructional art scores, including the practices of Yoko Ono and Marina Abramović.
In 2027, they plan to turn this material into an open electronic publication, available to artists, teachers, and art schools in Ukraine and the Czech Republic. In this way, the experience of working together is intended to become a foundation for the further use of ‘performance in times of crisis’ methods in arts education and public practice.