Ukraine Month in Europe / Luna Ucrainei în Europa | Casa Zemstvei

24.02.2023 - 25.03.2023

From February 24 to March 25, 2023, the Month of Ukraine in Europe commemorates one year since the invasion of Ukraine and will take place simultaneously in seven Eastern European countries, including Moldova. As part of this project, the Zemstvei House in Chisinau will host a month-long program, organized with the participation of Ukrainian and local artists, consisting of film screenings, followed by discussions with guests, a visual art exhibition, meetings with artists-in-residence, workshops for children and a round table.

UNCUT UKRAINE (February 24, 2023, 19:00)

“When will the winter of 2022 end?”

Launch of the Ukraine Month in Europe program.
A documentary film by Hanna Trofimova [UA]
2022 | Ukraine | 23’ | Ukrainian, Russian | EN sub
The screening will be followed by a discussion moderated by Constanța Dohotaru [MD]
Zpace (The House of Zemstvo, 103 Al. Sciusev str., Chisinau)

When the full-scale war against Ukraine began, Hanna was in Kyiv filming what was happening to her and the people around. She filmed her observations from her balcony, street walks, supermarket queues, and recorded her thoughts into this visual diary, an attempt to piece together her new reality.

Hanna Trofimova is a Ukrainian filmmaker and artist whose work spans from documentaries, to installation and video art.

“When Spring Came To Bucha”

A documentary film by Marcus Lenz [GE], Mila Teshaieva [UA]
2022 | Ukraine | 66’ | Ukrainian, Russian | EN sub

In the first months following the invasion, Russians bombarded Bucha, Borodyanka, Irpin and other cities in the region, leaving behind only death, destruction and despair. Filmmakers Mila Teshaieva and Marcus Lenz went in immediately, in time to film local people emerging from their shelters, but never showing the actual atrocities.

Marcus Lenz [GE] is a German filmmaker and cameraman, known for the film Rival, while Mila Teshaieva [UA] is a Ukrainian documentary photographer residing in Berlin.

Facebook event.

KYOSHK AIR (March 2, 11 18:00, 2023)
Meeting with the artist KAR [UA], followed by a discussion
3rd Space studio (Zemstvo House, 103 Al. Shchuseva St., Chisinau)

February 24, 2022 captures the anti-metaphorization of occupation art in Kherson during a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Zetovshchina” seeps into graphics, ceramics, textiles, collage, KAR’s thoughts, which the artist destroys before leaving on November 1, 2022, transporting still living art from the occupied Kherson to the occupied left bank “by a scrap for memory”. On February 10, 2023, previously detected fragments of objects pass the stage of border scanning for “basement” in the direction of Crimea – Russia – Belarus – Latvia – Lithuania – Poland – Ukraine – Moldova.

KAR is an artist from Ukraine. In its 2018–2021 works, KAR explores the terminological bottom of art (beauty = art = Kherson / subject of free pleasure = art = Ukraine) based on real events, combining the researched into samizdat.

Facebook event.

UNCUT UKRAINE (March 2, 2023, 19:00)

“On the threshold of independence”
Behind the screening after the discussion, the moderator is the historian Igor Kashu [MD]

Complementing each other with historical continuity, two short films explore the transition from Soviet socialism to democracy, as well as the theme of social protest that makes this transition possible thanks to the efforts of ordinary people striving for independence. The directors capture the deep social crisis of Soviet society, but also its unexpected awakening at the crossroads of history.

Zpatiu (Zemstvo House, 103 Al. Shchuseva St., Chisinau)

Facebook event.

Big hArt (March 4-11 from 13:00, 18-25 from 15:00, 2023)
Children’s art workshop
Art workshop (Zemstvo House, 103 Al. Shchuseva St., Chisinau)

A series of master classes for children from Ukraine and Moldova.

The artists of the Zemstvo House continue a series of creative workshops for children from refugee families in Ukraine and children from Chisinau, which will be held every Saturday in March 2023.

Participation in the master class is free.

Facebook event.

Maidan of Culture (March 4-25, 2023)
Exhibition curated by Tatyana Fedorova [MD] and Vladimir Us [MD]
Corridor / Club (Zemstvo House, 103 Al. Shchuseva St., Chisinau)

Maidan of Culture – an exhibition of visual art

From March 4 to March 25, 2023, an exhibition of visual art “Maidan of Culture” will be held in the public space in the Zemstvo House. Complementing the Ukraine Uncut film program organized as part of the Month of Ukraine in Europe, the works presented at the exhibition relate to key events that have unfolded over almost two decades of Ukraine’s recent history (the Orange Revolution, Euromaidan, the annexation of Crimea, the war in Donbass and a full-scale war launched by Russia). February last year). These events, in turn, contributed to the formation of Ukraine as a modern sovereign state, as we know it today.

Facebook event.

UNCUT UKRAINE (March 4, 2023, 19:00)

“Terykony”
Guest Anna Provozin [UA]
Zpatiu (Zemstvo House, 103 Al. Shchuseva St., Chisinau)

Toretsk is a small mining town in eastern Ukraine, which is still in the “gray zone”, not far from the demarcation line. This means that almost every day the city is under shelling. Nastya was six years old when shells fired by the Russian army hit their house on New Year’s Eve. For her and for children like her, the war has become part of the landscape, everyday life. Today, Nastya spends most of her time at the site of her destroyed house. To return to normal life, she needs the help of psychologists. She has post-traumatic stress disorder. But the girl does not stop dreaming about a new big house, about a dog and writes letters to Santa Claus with a request to return her dad.

Director Taras Tomenko[UA] was born in Kyiv in the family of the poet Mykola Tomenko. His graduation short film Tyr won the New York Film School Prize at the Berlinale 2001. “Terykony” is the director’s third feature film, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival 2022.

Facebook event.

UNCUT UKRAINE (March 9, 2023, 19:00)

“Orange Revolution”
The screening will be followed by a discussion moderated by the historian Sorin Shklyaruk [MD]. Ukrainian visual artist Volodymyr Kuznetsov [UA] will also join the discussion via video link.
Zpatiu (Zemstvo House, 103 Al. Shchusev St., Chisinau)

“Orange Revolution”
Steve York [USA] | 2007 | USA | 107′ | English language

In 2004, Ukraine made headlines around the world when one of the presidential candidates was poisoned. A few weeks later, elections were stolen from the people, and then a protest broke out in the country, which went down in history as the Orange Revolution.

Facebook event.

UNCUT UKRAINE (March 11, 2023, 19:00)

Wartime Art – Selection of Short Films
Zpaţiu (Casa Zemstvei, 103 Al. Șciusev str., Chisinau)
The films will be followed by a discussion moderated by Sandu Macrinici [MD]

The Wartime Art short film program brings together 4 films that explore the role of art, as well as artists’ practice and reflection on war. At the beginning we observe the collective civic efforts to protect the cultural heritage from explosions in This Is Our Monuments, continuing with the Liturgy of Anti-tank – a brief visit to the workshop of religious sculptors who temporarily turned their craft into the manufacture of anti-tank obstacles.

On a different note, away from the echoes of war, the film Away tells the story of two teenage Ukrainian refugees who work with refugee children in an art workshop, and in their spare time create a protest artwork on the streets of Budapest , sparking discussions between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian passers-by. In conclusion, the film NO!NO!NO! presents a community of artists from Kharkiv who react and reflect on political events through their specific relationships with the urban space but also social networks.

Facebook event.

The role of culture in times of crisis – round table (March 15, 2023, 19:00)
Zpace (House of Zemstvo, 103 Al. Șciusev str., Chisinau)

Discussion moderated by Vitalie Sprânceana.

From February 24 to March 25, 2023, Ukraine Month in Europe marks one year since Russia invaded Ukraine and will take place simultaneously in seven Eastern European countries, including Moldova. The Coalition of the Independent Cultural Sector from the Republic of Moldova organizes a discussion panel within this program in which we will reflect together with cultural operators from Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus and Moldova on the role of art and culture in times of crisis.

In the context of the war in Ukraine, but also of the authoritarian drifts in the region in the context in which several governments try to limit the rights of citizens under security pretexts, what is the role of culture and artists in the fight to defend fundamental rights? What is our mission as cultural workers in terms of resilience and social cohesion? Can art and culture contribute to maintaining peace?How do they help us process current events and give us a horizon of expectation?Through this discussion, we want to give participants a starting point to reflect on the role of culture and art in difficult times and what their roles are for each individual, for local and global communities.

Facebook event.

UNCUT UKRAINE (March 16, 2023, 19:00)

The film will be followed by a discussion with Hanna Tykha [UA].

Stronger than Arms is a documentary chronicle of the events of the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity and the beginning of the war in eastern Ukraine — from the spontaneous attempt to occupy the presidential administration building on December 1, 2013 to the fighting in the ruins of the Donetsk airport in the fall of 2014.

This documentary was the first filmed by a group of documentarians of the BABYLON’13 group, all videos being filmed directly from the epicenter of the events, from their own initiatives and resources. Some of them immediately became public domain and were posted on YouTube. Like the events of the revolution, the whole initiative to document them started from an individual desire for the truth, which gradually turned into a group of people with similar thoughts and values who are active to this day in this project called the cinema of civil society.

Facebook event.

UNCUT UKRAINE (March 18, 2023, 19:00)

At the end of the screening, there will be a Q&A with director Alina Gorlova [UA] via video call.

“No Obvious Signs” is a phrase Ukrainian soldiers often hear in hospitals. But when the body appears unharmed, the psychological trauma often goes unnoticed—both by doctors and those affected.

Oksana Yakubova recently returned from a war zone in eastern Ukraine, a time spent there that she describes as hell and which led her to believe that “surviving after war is harder than dying from it.” Talking to psychologists, dealing with her post-traumatic stress disorder and panic attacks, she struggles to return to normal life. Together with Oksana, we observe her journey from the beginning of rehabilitation to her return to work. The film shows us what remains behind the scenes of the heroic videos of Ukrainian soldiers, what they have to face in their daily lives and where the war actually ends.

Facebook event.

UNCUT UKRAINE (March 23, 2023, 19:00)

“People Who Came to Power”

Filmed in March-April 2014 in Donbas, the film recreates society’s gradual transition from peaceful life to a state of war, following the transformation of social protest into an armed uprising, supported by a covert foreign invasion. The film does not focus on individual stories, but shows the inflammatory mechanisms of war that led to social collapse.

“Donbass”

When war is called peace, when propaganda is spoken as truth, when hate is declared love, then the grotesque and the drama are as intertwined as life and death. In this spirit, the director combines reality and fiction, in a black comedy that reproduces the absurd reality of the hybrid war in Donbas involving an open armed conflict alongside mass robberies committed by criminal gangs.

Unlike most of the previous documentary work of the Ukrainian director Sergey Loznitsa, Donbass is a feature film of fiction. Most of the scenes, however, are based on amateur videos shot in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and uploaded to YouTube, and feature 13 back-to-back episodes, recreating real-life stories that took place in the territory controlled by the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR.

Zpaţiu (Casa Zemstvei, 103 Al. Șciusev str., Chisinau)

Facebook event.

UNCUT UKRAINE (March 25, 2023, 19:00)

“Hamlet Syndrome”

Zpaţiu (Casa Zemstvei, 103 Al. Șciusev str., Chisinau)

The film will be followed by a moderated discussion by Sandu Macrinici [MD] and a video call discussion with one of the directors

A group of young Ukrainian actors, each with their own psychological scars from the war in Donbas, are invited to perform in an experimental theater production of Hamlet. Under the sensitive but firm direction of playwright Rosa Sarkisian, the protagonists develop their roles, intertwining their dramatic performance with processing the traumatic experiences of war. Like Hamlet, they face great existential dilemmas. “To live or not to live,” is Yaroslav’s twist in Hamlet’s soliloquy as he reflects on his physical—and near-lethal—involvement in armed conflict. Kateryna and Roman fight on their own fronts, while Oksana and Rodion fight as feminists and members of the LGBTQ community in a conservative and intolerant society.

Facebook event.

Closing party of Ukraine Month in Europe (March 25, 2023, 23:00)

Queer cafe (House of Zemstvo, 103 Al. Șciusev str., Chisinau)

Ukraine Month in Europe hosts its final party to celebrate the Ukrainian culture and friendship, as well as the numerous friendships that were built, the humanitarian activities, and the multitude of artworks created that speak highly of the Ukrainian pride and justice.
For the closing party of Ukraine Month in Europe, the organising team has engaged the Driadele movement and PODVAL collective to pay homage to the womxn DJs that want to create music and promote the music they enjoy, that want to cooperate with each other, and create a safe space for beginner womxn DJs from Moldova and from other countries.

The party’s line up (a-z)
– Borș (MD)
– Rada (CH)
– Radio Lina (UA)

Date: 24.02.2023 - 25.03.2023

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