It's OK... Circle 2: No one will say my words for me, no one will do my job for me #2
23 June 2023
5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Performative reading
Performative reading of Who else eats life with a spoon? by Kateryna Aliinyk. Curated by Dmytro Chepurnyi as part of the No one will say my words for me, no one will do my job for me circle.
Curator and art critic Kateryna Filyuk convened this circle, which explores the experiences of Ukrainians during times of war. The public circle gatherings centre on Ukrainian LGBTQ+ makers and these from Eastern Ukraine, who had to flee, for what seems now, forever. Despite being of completely different grounds, both oftentimes still have to fight their own battles while being at the at the actual battlefield.
A performative reading of Kateryna Aliinyk's "Who else eats life with a spoon?" will explore the everyday life ethics in the context of Russian occupation. Aliinyk's feminist perspective sheds light on the war that began in Luhansk and Donetsk regions in 2014. The performative reading will offer a deeper understanding of the impact of war on individuals, families and communities, as well as a commentary on the broader social and political issues in Ukraine.
Kateryna Filyuk is a curator and researcher. In 2017-2021 she served as a chief curator at Izolyatsia. A Platform for Cultural Initiatives in Kyiv. She is also co-founder of the publishing house “89books” in Palermo. Filyuk is the founder and affiliate of “Festival Ucraina. La Terra di Confine in Palermo” (2022). In 2020-21, she was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Others Art Fair (Turin). Before joining Izolyatsia, she was co-curator of the Festival of Young Ukrainian Artists at Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv (2017). She has participated in several internationally renowned curatorial programs, including the Young Curators Residency Program at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2017); De Appel Curatorial Programme, Amsterdam (2015-2016); International Research Fellowship at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul (2014); and Gwangju Biennial International Curator Course (2012). She was the editor of the catalog and coordinator of the discussion platform for the First International Biennial of Contemporary Art in Kyiv ARSENALE 2012. She has an MA in Philosophy from Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University and has been a PhD student at the University of Palermo since 2021.
Kateryna Aliinyk’s artistic practice focuses on the private patches of land in occupied territories where less obvious processes of war slowly grind on, such as artillery warfare, landmines, blood and remains. Aliinyk's paintings also take a nonanthropocentric view, which reminds us of the layers of yet undiscovered damage that they will face and recover from. Aliinyk has master's degree in painting (NAFAA). She studied at KAMA (Kyiv Academy of Media Arts) and Method Fund. Her primary mediums are painting and text. Currently works with the subjects of war and the occupation of Donbas through images of nature and non-anthropocentric optics. She lives and works in Kyiv since 2016. Her selected exhibitions include "Sabina" Gallery, Kyiv (2020), “Working Room” (“Robocha Kimnata”), Dnipro (2022), "What is depicted here?", Essen (2022), "W Ukraine", Warsaw (2022), "A:2402 D:2022", Berlin (2022), "State of Emergency", Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, Bucharest (2022), "If there is no war today, it doesn't mean there is no war", Kraków (2022).
Dmytro Chepurnyi is an independent curator and writer based in Kyiv. He was born in 1994 in Luhansk, located north of the Donetsk coal basin. He graduated from the Cultural Studies department at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. From 2016 to 2020, he collaborated with the IZOLYATSIA and coordinated the Donbas Studies research project. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the University of St Andrews (UK) and a member of the group Donbas Through Collaborative Frameworks (Ukraine/UK). He has collaborated with key cultural institutions in Ukraine, including Asortymentna Kimnata, ShcherbenkoArtCentre, and PinchukArtCentre. He is a co-author of the book "Limits of Collaboration: Art, Ethics, and Donbas" (2022), along with Victoria Donovan and Daria Tsymbalyuk, and a co-author of the publication "Curatorial Handbook" (2020), along with Oleksandra Pogrebnyak and Kateryna Iakovlenko. He has curated various art residency programs, including "Landscape As a Monument" (2020), "Contemporary Art Rivne" (2021), and "When Was the Story Interrupted?" (2022).
About It's OK... commoning uncertainties
This circle is part of the multi-year collective art project It's OK... communing uncertainties and narrating different realities. From May 26 to September 24 in the Oude Kerk, for more information about It's OK... look here.