How do artists work in a war zone? How can artists safeguard a culture under threat of annihilation? What does courage and daring mean in the context of a hostile invasion by a military force? The devastating war in Europe happening right now totally changes our notions of risk, care, support and the role of the artist for all of us. This conversation explores the impact of Russia’s war on two key figures in the dance world, and what they imagine will be the future of dance in Ukraine.

Simon Dove

Anton Ovchinnikov

Polina Bulat

Lyon

Kyiv

BIPOD 2022

Maqamat

Cartes sur Table - a future for dance in Ukraine?

On February 24, 2022, on the evening of the day when Russia began its war of conquest with Ukraine, I urgently left Kyiv and went into forced isolation. Kyiv began to be shelled with cruise missiles and I moved to the village of Morozivka, 50 km from Kyiv. I thought life would be safer there.

A week later, the war was 20 km from the place where I stayed. Around the clock we heard explosions and shooting, and a week later we got used to these sounds. Already in early April, Ukrainian Army drove out Russian troops from nearby villages and it became quiet here. Gradually, I began to regain mobility in my body and come out of the stupor. Then I decided to shoot a few videos of improvisations in order to look at the bodily transformations that happened to me from the outside. All the time before that, I felt completely paralyzed - I couldn't force myself to move or do anything at all. The only thing I could do was writing poetry - suddenly the thoughts and the feelings began to take the form of words.

When I analyze my perception of events and information during this time, I get the impression that everything has become completely black and white. Halftones disappeared and all people were divided into "friends" and "foes". In texts, which I began to collect on Facebook, I was searching for these same halftones to bring the ability to feel back into my life. It also become the ability to preserve the imaginative perception of the world beyond good and evil.

I felt it was important to capture this moment. That`s how the movie come out of being isolated in war time.


Kyiv

Events

Monochrome