STANISLAVA OVCHINNIKOVA | MOVING IN MAYHEM | 2023-2024
Moving in Mayhem is a program of dance films curated by Stanislava Ovchinnikova in collaboration with the all-Ukrainian association Contemporary Dance Platform and their Let The Body Speak archive. The program features ten short films—all created within the first six months following the Russian full-scale invasion—that examine the ongoing transformation of the relationships between human bodies and lived environments under conditions of war.
The works in the program traverse a spectrum of temporal, spatial, and psychological (dis)locations. For example, Danyil Zenkin's "Runner" articulates the paradox of enforced immobility within the subjectively accelerated time, responding to the impossibility of leaving the country by becoming a runner who remains fixed in place; Svitlana Oleksiuk's "Suite on Ukrainian Folk Themes" examines working conditions for Ukrainian dancers after the invasion and creates what she describes as a "dance dialogue" based on the music of Ukrainian composer Borys Lyatoshynsky; and Olha Kebas's film "Exi(s)t" interrogates the dual nature of culture itself, questioning how cultural practices become a constructive force or tools of propaganda. The program as a whole traces how artistic practice adapts to, documents, and reflects on the conditions of existential threat, in the context of which dance emerges as a method of processing ongoing traumagenic circumstances and the means of resistance.
Full list works in the program:
Revived by Dmytro Zakharov
Runner by Danyil Zenkin
Suite on Ukrainian Folk Themes by Svitlana Oleksiuk
Exi(s)t by Olha Kebas
Rozklad Ruhu (Timetable) by Yana Shevchenko and Dmytro Abalmasov
The Last Human by Yaroslav Kainar
Happy Birthday To Me by Lesia Prusova
Hold On and Live On by Olena Vakhramieieva
Hopeless Hope by Voloshyna Yeva
The Light by Koptseva Valeria and Korotkov Yaroslav
Past screenings:
2023 Oodi Helsinki Central Library, Kino Regina, Finland
2023 College Bard Berlin, Germany
2023 Cultural Center Luckan, Helsinki, Finland
2023 Choreographic Convention “Celebrating Trouble,” EU Capital of Culture Timisoara, Romania
2024 Kaunas Artists’ House, Lithuania
2024 Fforst x Viadrina University, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
Select media mentions:
2023.10.05 Corpuri care spun povești personale reprezentative pentru lume. Despre ”Let the Body Speak” la Cinema Victoria, Timișoara (Bodies that tell personal stories representative of the world. About "Let the Body Speak" at Cinema Victoria, Timișoara). An article by Anca Zaharia for Revista Golan (revistagolan.com)
2024.02.22 Interview with Stanislava Ovchinnikova and Edvinas Grinkevičius (Kaunas Artists’ House) for Ryto Allegro (LRT.lt)
2024.05.16 Making Art Under the Collapsing Sky, an article by Angelina Georgieva about Choreographic Convention “Celebrating Trouble” for Contemporary Performing Arts Platform “New Dramaturgies”
The curator wishes to express gratitude to the Ukraine Solidarity Residencies Programme/Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP) and Jaana Denisova for the crucial support that made the development of the program and its premiere at Oodi Helsinki Central Library possible.