Women Commentators
Komentatorki / Women Commentators Festival is an event based on a relationship and interaction with the public. It is unique, because a project such as this, involving female artists from Russia and Ukraine as well as the local audiences in Warsaw, has never been undertaken before. The objective is the creation of a broader space for a dialogue between Russian and Ukrainian female artists and the Polish audience. It is an interdisciplinary project addressed to a larger public, with a rich cultural and educational agenda. The main idea of the festival is an assumption that we do not want to remain indifferent to the current political and artistic events, nor to the situation of women in general. The project, conceived as a combination of visual arts and political science, aims to promote activities of women working with a variety of techniques as well as their presence in the public life. It defies stereotypes, provides new information, which might not be universally known yet, and engages a wide range of audiences. We want to have real impact and we know that art is a perfect tool to achieve this goal. It is a tool which will enable the organisation of an event of remarkable significance for the Polish art, which introduces a new quality into the field of culture and raises social awareness. We supports young female artists who use unusual forms of artistic expression and whose common denominator is the compelling need to reflect upon the world around them – their social and political surroundings. Each of the invited artists has developed their own way of solving modern-day problems, which adds even more dimensions and value to the project – it invites to participate in a discussion that does not exclude any group and makes no assumptions.
By inviting chosen artists to Warsaw we give them space, tools and we create conditions for their collaboration. Results of their activities to date, as well as the outcome of the Warsaw residency will be presented to the public during the festival days at the Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture. For the duration of the festival we take over the Królikarnia Palace and the surrounding grounds!
29 Sep – 12 Oct 2014
Festival: 3 – 5 October 2014
Curator: Katia Krupennikova
Organised by the Katarzyna Kozyra Foundation
Partners: Planete+ Doc Film Festival i Against Gravity.
The project is co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage
FRIDAY, 3 OCTOBER
6.00 PM Official opening. Welcome speech and presentation of the film programme by Liza Babenko. After Maidan: between Russia and Ukraine. Curated by Liza Babenko, Kiev. (EN/PL)
After Maidan: Between Russia and Ukraine presents a unique selection of incisively political movies by Ukrainian and Russian directors. All the films have been created during the last several years or in some cases recent months, and are conceptually united by a mutual political position, pointing against the ongoing civil war in Ukraine, as well as against the colonial aggression of Russia towards post-Maidan Ukraine.
The programme contains short and feature-length videos by young directors, as well as feature-length movies by renown directors, which already got significance at international film festivals.
Films by young directors narrate the protest existence of Kiev’s Maidan, while also revealing an ambiguous entity of this revolution, filled with local nationalism and ultra-right radicalism (Katherina Gornostay), which among other reasons caused the following separation of Crimea and war conflict with Russia (Vlad Kazakov). Pieces by other Ukrainian ‘new wave’ directors (Piotr Armyanovsky, Nadezhda Parfan and Maria Stoyanova) refer to Ukranian socio-political context, which is interesting to analyze in the frame of the current post-revolution state of Ukraine. Works by Maria Godovannaya, a student of renown american avant-guard director Jonas Mekas, uses form of parody as a language for critique of Russian government, its conservatism and imperial aggression.
Film programme will also present full-length movies by internationally recognized directors: Putin’s Games by Anatoly Gentelev, For Marx by Moscow conceptualism’s circles director Svetlana Baskova, as well as as well as cutting edge Polish premiere of Children 404 by Askold Kurov. A special evening delivered through the partnership with Against Gravity will feature two films: My Joy by Sergey Loznitsa and Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer by Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin. All of them contextualize Russian environment in order to bring a deeper understanding of the military state and its feudal politics.
7.00 PM Performance: Alevtina Kakhidze, Ukrainian Reality Adaptation Course (EN/PL)
Ukrainian Reality Adaptation Course is a performative event, a playful practice aimed to comprehend the political reality. The artist will present three objects to engage with: Christmas Eve (Christmas tree, texts on paper), Acceptation (colored seed bead) and Variations (painted objects). The exercises for Ukrainian Reality Adaptation Course were created and tried out during February’s evenings in Muzychi Village and Kiev (Ukraine).
7.30 PM Concert by AVTOMAT with PLEŚNI project
PLEŚNI is a name of a new project as well as a new album by vocalist, composer and music producer from Toruń, Kajetan Łukomski alias AVTOMAT.
Project PLEŚNI combines Ukrainian, Belarusian, Siberian and Georgian polyphonic folk songs with the modern electronic bass background. Concerts combine singing a capella together with 2-step beats, post-dubstep, future garage and afrobeat sounds.
SATURDAY, 4 OCTOBER
11.00 AM Lecture: Liza Babenko, (Post) Maidan: critics and revision. From ultra-right nationalism to socialism (EN)
The lecture by a culture expert, curator and documentarist Liza Babenko will explore ideological, political and economic reasons which caused the non-acceptance of Maidan’s revolution at its very origin by a considerable part of Ukraine (Crimea and Donbass). As polls picture nowadays, Ukrainian areas which were not accepting Maidan, did not need a national-bourgeois protest such as Maidan, but searched for a real class struggle, directed against the local oligarchy and its feudal forms of management, which in fact did not transform even after Yanukovitch’s banishment.
Turn-down of Maidan protest by Crimea, Donbass and other regions is in some way connected with the nationalist shape, taken by this revolution. The current carriers of ultra-right Ukrainian idea, while standing last winter at Maidan square next to other people, did not manage to get over the trauma brought by Russian Imperial's and USSR’s colonial history, which terminated the millions of Western Ukrainians. As a result, the national-fascist symbols and ultra-right statements and programs were widely utilized, being imposed upon the pro-Russian eastern and southern regions of the country, historically disengaged with the Western and Central Ukraine and not involved into the same colonial trauma connected with the presence of Russian influence.
The lecture will further investigate what is hidden today behind the notion of ‘Ukrainian fascism’, and what real threats of right radicalism that are rising in front of Ukraine only after Maidan, regardless of what is being said by the Russian media propaganda. The neo-colonial interest of the lecture will not only touch upon Russia’s imperialism, but as well it will look at the geopolitical colonialism of USA and EU, each of whom is following their own strategic interests in the Ukrainian war in the middle of Europe, where the rhetoric about the fight for democracy in Ukraine is just a populist move.
12.00 PM Debate: Pros and cons of rape. Post-colonial syndrome. ‘Colonialism’ in contemporary understanding, its potential within the frame of interpretation in politics, geography, and culture (PL)
Participants: Agnieszka Morawińska, Małgorzata Jacyno, Tomasz Stryjek (moderator)
To come closer to understanding of the current situation in Ukraine, it is crucial to explore the relationships between the countries of the ex-Soviet Block and Russian Federation and USSR as Imperialist/Colonialist. The objectives, formal characteristics and instruments of colonization differ from other types of Imperial dominations in Eastern, Central European and Baltic countries, which defines possibilities and instruments of restoring national identities of these countries.
1.30 PM Artist Talk: Lesia Khomenko, Actions of R.E.S. (Revolutionary Experimental Space) (EN)
The artist talk will be based on the actions of R.E.S. (Revolutionary Experimental Space). R.E.S is an artist union, established in November 2004. It consists of artists: Nikita Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova, Vladimir Kuznetsov, Xenia Gnilitskaya, Lada Nakonechnaya, Olesya Khomenko. The “Revolutionary Experimental Space”, which gave the name to the group of young Ukrainian artists appeared on the streets, in the midst of extreme political situation of the Orange revolution. The fake political posters got exhibited the same way as the usual ones, but containing the absurd slogans and symbols. It is significant that many of the posters by RES were in the end expropriated and used as genuine revolution’s agitation. Thus, the first appearance of the group happened on a background of increasing performativity of the Ukrainian political situation. Artists have recorded some brakes in reality which caused the disappearance of the sense of reality itself.
2.00 - 8.00 PM Liza Babenko presents a programme of short movies (looped projection)
1. Katherine Gornostai, Lenin’s Teeth, documentary, Ukraine, 2014 (10 mins)
2. Andrey Litvinenko, Sleeping, documentary, Ukraine, 2014 (6:05 mins)
3. Vlad Kazakov, Revolution in Ukraine, documentary, Ukraine, 2014 (11:38 min)
4 . Armyanovsky Piotr, Meat Factory, documentary, Ukraine, 2013 (32 min)
5. Masha Godovannaya, Feast during the Plague, art documentary, Russia, 2014 (12 min)
6. Masha Godovannaya, Non-traditional, art documentary, Russia, 2013 (6 min)
7. Nadia Parfan, Maria Stoyanova, Exarch, documentary, Ukraine, 2013 (10 min)
3.00 PM Artist Talk: Olga Jitlina, Agency of Utopian News, Russia – The Land of Opportunities, Hodja Nasreddin Joke Contest (EN)
Olga Jitlina will speak about her practice, which employs non-conventional platforms and is focused on the issues of human rights, along with that of nationalism and neo-nationalism in Russia. Jitlina will elaborate on three projects of hers. The Agency of Utopian News, a series of publications in mass-media titled as a humorous and absurdist attempt to explore the power of political imagination and confusion. The migrant board game Russia, The Land of Opportunity (presented at Women Commentators) is an attempt to find a way to depict a variety of life-scenarios of the labour migrants coming to Russia from ex-Soviet states. She will as well speak of her new project developed in the frame of Manifesta 10: the humour competition named after Nasreddin Hodja, speaking about the contexts when the humour is the only weapon.
4.00 PM Debate: David and Goliath. The art of fighting the giants. What is the role of culture in the times of upheavals? Subversive strategies, their impacts and consequences (PL)
Participants: Katarzyna Kozyra, Agata Czarnacka, Jan Śpiewak, Anna Łazar (moderator)
Today the world in filled with various activist strategies, starting from numerous Ecological movements, going to Occupy or the Prayer of Pussy Riot. What are the most effective activist strategies of the modern world? Why the mix of creativity and marketing is so important in activism? How to be able to shake the society and at the same time to legally protect yourself from the state? Why should we or shouldn’t we use cultural boycott as a form of protest? The discussion spins around various ‘successful’ and ‘unsuccessful’ examples of activist actions.
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4.30 - 5.00 PM Performance: Yevgenia Belorusets. The eye and the sun
The performance will take place at The Market Square and will engage accidental publics (68, Krakowskie Przedmieście Str.)
5.30 PM Reading Group: Katia Krupennikova, What does it mean to be human? DNR Dairies of Vladimir Maksakov (EN)
– please send e-mail to dir@katarzynakozyra.pl to register and receive more materials prior to the event
Vladimir Maksakov is a young historian, anthropologist and journalist from Moscow, who went to Donetsk on his own to make his personal investigation, pretending to be a volunteer soldier on the pro-Russian side. His interest was discovered by the militaries the next day upon arrival, and he was thrown to a “Pit”, a place, which is worse than a prison, where the spies are kept. Being a friend of the curator of Women Commentators Festival he occasionally sends his notes to her. The text, which he sent her just after his release reveals multiple cases of desperate cruelty and inhuman violence. The notes from Donbass by Vladimir Maksakov will be the subject of the reading group.
7.00 PM Debate: They live! Looking for reality through contemporary media (PL)
Participants: Aleksandra Karasińska, Michał Przymusiński, Marek Troszyński, Agnieszka Wołk-Łaniewska (moderator)
Information Wars for centuries have been one of the most effective strategies of social control. With the appearance of open media and the internet we obviously got access to freedoms, we could not even imagine only 20 years ago. Nowadays everyone can be heard by creating or sharing any content, which would find its audience. However, this intoxicating freedom has an underlying danger. The ability of forming a fake reality, and swiftly spreading it is being widely utilized. We start to realize that internet is becoming a dangerous instrument information wars, since it allows to deliver specific content to certain groups of people.
Against Gravity and Planete+ Doc Film Festival presents:
8.00 PM My Joy, Sergey Loznisa, Russia, Germany, 2010
10.30 PM Pussy Riot Punk Prayer, Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, Russia, UK, 2013
SUNDAY, 5 OCTOBER
11.00 AM: Debate: To Kill a Dragon. Notes about personal and civil freedom. Can we understand a bit more about what really happens in Ukraine? (RU/PL)
Participants: Lesia Khomenko, Yevgenia Belorusets, Alevtina Kakhidze, Mariia Gonchar
The current war touches upon both Russians and Ukrainians. Together, the participants of the festival, some of which went to the cities where the war actions were held, or have close relatives there, will try to discuss their experiences of the current war conflict.
A starting point for the discussion is inspired by a Russian-German film-parable To Kill the Dragon (1988) created just before the fall of the Berlin Wall (1988). The fictional country lives in the fear of the Dragon. He rules the citizens, oppresses them, plays their lives. In this country most of the citizens do not want to be saved, do not want to change anything, they are confident that “The only way to get rid of a Dragon is to have their own Dragon.” At some point the knight appears and kills the Dragon. This brings the country to chaos and fights, because this is how the citizens envision the ‘freedom’. On the wave of anarchy the new leader appears who calls himself a President, and proclaims the Republic and freedom. However, it is just another Dragon coming to power... Finally the knight is back to fight again for the freedom to explain to the people that they need to first of all to kill a dragon ‘inside of themselves’, when he realizes that himself he turns into a Dragon...
11.00 - 5.30 PM Liza Babenko presents a programme of short movies (looped projection)
1. Katherine Gornostai, Lenin’s Teeth, documentary, Ukraine, 2014 (10 mins)
2. Andrey Litvinenko, Sleeping, documentary, Ukraine, 2014 (6:05 mins)
3. Vlad Kazakov, Revolution in Ukraine, documentary, Ukraine, 2014 (11:38 min)
4 . Armyanovsky Piotr, Meat Factory, documentary, Ukraine, 2013 (32 min)
5. Masha Godovannaya, Feast during the Plague, art documentary, Russia, 2014 (12 min)
6. Masha Godovannaya, Non-traditional, art documentary, Russia, 2013 (6 min)
7. Nadia Parfan, Maria Stoyanova, Exarch, documentary, Ukraine, 2013 (10 min)
1.00 PM Workshop: Lyubov Matyunina, Make Piece. Creation of a ritual piece carpet (EN)
make peace make peace make peace
and no longer fight
and if you will fight
I'll bite
and biting is not trick
I'll fight with brick
brick is breaking – friendship begins!
The workshop is based on a childhood game common for every Russian and Ukrainian kid, which would be used just after every fight they had. Unfortunately in ‘mature’ world it is not so easy anymore to make piece. Inspired by the idea of ‘heterotopia’, expressed by Michael Foucault in lecture On the other spaces (1967) and Dmitry Arzyutov's study on ‘Shirdek’ (a ritual carpets from Altai), Matyunina uses a carpet as a ‘map’ that structures the surrounding space. Similarly to the piece Wishmaster Carpet, the carpet which will be created by the artist together with the participants of the workshop will become a mirror of space, a symbolic introduction to the world’s hierarchical structure and rituals. The carpet thus becomes a representation of an ideal world.
2.30 PM Artist Talk: Lusine Djanyan, Art of direct action (Mordovlag / Action of Pussy Riot in Sochi 2014 told by the participant) (RU/PL)
Lusine Dianyan will present the concept of art of direct action. That is the description that can be given to a project started by Lusine Djanyan in the heart Mordovlag (Mordovian Prison where Nadezhda Tolokonnikova was held) in October 2013. The artist was present there during the time of support campaign - starting from the hunger strike of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova to her transportation to Krasnoyarsk. Djanyan will tell about the sub-projects which form Mordovlag and about the action of Pussy Riot in Sochi during Olympic Games (2014), which followed right after the release of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina from prison and where Lusine Djanyan took part in.
3.30 PM Lecture: Ekaterina Lazareva, Aesthetisation of politics, politisation of aestethics (RU/PL)
In his famous essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin introduces the contradiction between ‘bad’ aesthetization of politics by the rightists and ‘good’ politicization of aesthetics by the leftists. Examples corresponding to Benjamin's formula can be found in the avant-garde art, in particular, in the history of Italian Futurism and Russian art. However, a number of events and trends do not fit into this scheme, subverting its strictness. Despite, the philosopher’s statement was extremely influential in the intellectual context - to the extent that the official policy was transformed into a thought through performance, artists and curators got inspired to create pieces in ‘political’ way. The lecture is devoted to a brief analysis of these two strategies based on the issues of the present moment.
4.30 PM Lecture: Alevtina Kakhidze To be alive or dead / in frame of Manifesta 10 (EN)
‘To be alive or dead / in frame of Manifesta 10’ — consists of notes, drawings, diagrams, schemes, I created reflection on my own participation/non-participation in Manifesta 10, The European Biennial of Contemporary Art, which takes place in Saint Petersburg in 2014.
So, if I would be a ‘dead participant of the biennial,’ like for instance Louise Bourgeois or Joseph Beuys, these notes would never appear... There would be discussed the accuracy of the curatorial choice for one or another piece from my oeuvre, exhibited in the frame of M10.
It means, that myself and Pawel Althamer* have right to influence showcasing or not showcasing of our works in the frame of M10, while Bourgeois and Beuys can’t have this right.
* Pawel Althamer, a Polish artist who canceled his participation in M10. Alevtina Kakhidze accepted to participate in this project with no hesitation.
-- Alevtina Kakhidze
5.00 PM Workshop: Mariia Gonchar How to pack and deliver the food from outside to a detention facility. (EN)
The event is inspired by the seemingly impossible ways of functioning of the court system which derives from a modified USSR penal code, where justice is subjugated solely to accusatory tendency and where the law exists on paper, however, not all that is written is put into practice. Mariia Gonchar presents the reflection on her experience of Ukrainian upheaval through the practice, which was used in Ukraine during Maidan riots to send a parcel for a person detained in a custody.
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5.30 PM: Film Programme: Children 404, Askold Kurov, Russia, 2014 (Polish premiere)
6.00 PM Debate: Manipulated Mind Twist. The trap of confusing nationalism with patriotism (PL/RU )
Participants: Aleka Polis, Liza Babenko, Ekaterina Lazareva, Ewa Majewska (moderator)
In his Notes on Nationalism George Orwell wrote: Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism. Both words are normally used in such vague a way that any definition is liable to be challenged, but one must draw a distinction between them, since two different and even opposing ideas are involved. The border between the two notions is deliberately blurred.... The discussion will be focused on describing the both notions, and figuring out how to not get lost in translation and how to not hook on the populist rhetoric playing on the patriotic feelings to create nationalist societies.
7.30 PM Film Programme: Putin’s Games, Anatoly Gentelev, Israel, Austria, Germany, 2014
9.00 PM Film Programme: For Marx, Svetiana Baskova, Russia, 2012
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