VIІI DAYS OF PERFORMANCE ART IN LVIV. September 2 – 6, 2015. press release

Autumn in Lviv traditionally begins with contemporary art and activation
of the art performances in urban space.

The eighth International Festival of Performance Days of Performance Art in Lviv (the first was in the far 2008) – unique and only in Ukraine – will take place on 2 – 6 of September. This year the performances are combined with the events of Eastern Partnership Culture Congress that also takes place in Lviv in those days.

Vector of the art performances/events is seen through the theme of the festival:  Performance. Activation

We are living through a time that turns people’s minds upside down. People make choices, they are polarized in the views, and dullness disappears. Radicalization starts: in emotions, in the views, in mind – in everything. Performance – is the most responsive genre among the all known art directions, outlining and decoding nature of social changes, human feelings and emotional stress. So, we can safely speak about performer’s activation – his or her instant reaction to changes.

Both experienced artists and novices from Ukraine, Israel, Great Britain, Poland and Germany will perform during The Days; these include: Sandra Johnston, Meir Tati, Ernesto Levy, Zygmunt Piotrowski, Przemyslaw Branas, Szymon Kula, Dorothea Seror, Pavlo Kovach and Petro Ryaska.  Curators of the Days of Performance Art are Volodymyr Kaufman (Ukraine), Tamar Raban (Israel), Janusz Baldyga (Poland).

An essential part of the Days of Performance Art in Lviv, is an educational feature of the festival School of Performance that brings together everyone willing to master the fundamentals of the performance art and present their own performative ideas together with experienced and well-known artists. This year the program of The School consists of two platforms featuring Sandra Johnston from the University of Newcastle and Polish artist, co-founder of the international art-group Black Market, Zygmunt Piotrowski. Waldemar Tatarczuk and Janusz Baldyga, The Scholl’s curator, also participate in the creation of The School lineup.

Traditionally, lectures and master classes in the School of Performance will take place every day – from 10:00 to 14:00; performances will be held in the afternoon during the festival from 2 to 6 of September. To participate in the School of Performance, please, fill the questionnaire (attached) and mail it no later then 27 of August to: dzygainfo@gmail.com Please, do state in the subject line School of Performance.

Project Manager of the Days of Performance Art in Lviv: Lida Savchenko-Duda

Event organizers:  Institute of Conemporary Arts, Dzyga Art Assosiation

Partners:  Lviv City Council, Polish Institute in Kyiv, Embassy of Israel in Ukraine, Goethe Institute in Kiev, Foundation TransKultura, Lviv Palace of Arts, Guest House in the spiritual and cultural center Archangel, Hotel George.

 

Sandra Jhonston comes from Northern Ireland and has been active as an artist since 1992, working in the areas of site-responsive performance, video installation and drawing. Her artworks have often proposed alternative approaches to considering the aftermath of trauma, particularly in relation to ideas of location, testimony and empathetic communication.

The performance actions are experiential in nature, directly improvised in selected situations and assembled mainly from found objects. In this regard, the actions often behave like relics salvaged from a forgotten moment – flawed, inexact and silent.

Johnston has been involved in several University teaching and research posts since 2002, including an AHRC Research Fellowship at the University Of Ulster in Belfast, investigating issues of «Trauma of Place». Currently, Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Northumbria University in England. Additionally, she has been a co-founder and committee member of various artist-run collectives in Belfast, namely: CATALYST ARTS, BBEYOND, and AGENCY.

Zygmunt Piotrowski (Noah Warsaw) since the early 70s he has been involved in the independent cultural movement (student’s art center Dziekanka, Warsaw), has been a head of the group of self-education «Studio Art-Research»; cooperating with students of theater, music and art schools promotes an idea of self-education in the art process.

Since 1984 he has been iimplementing a new way of collective interaction in contemporary art, by this he has created a program principles of the international group of artists «Black market».

In the early 90s he refused from the active participation in the art market, and focused on the individual creative way, based on the concept HERITAGE and applying a contemplation practice of routine art-process.

Over the years he performs under the name NOAH WARSAW, returns to active participation in performance art, reveals a new trend in the artistic research «dyscyplinie natchnienia», which is being defined as ARCHWAY and applies «fine art performance» in practice.

 11 08 2015

Partners and organizers