Screening of a dance film and discussion with the Ukrainian multidisciplinary artist Anton Ovchinnikov, moderated by the theater critic Angelina Georgieva
(Ukraine)
This event is part of the educational platform “Without Distance” 2023 of the project “Life Long Burning – Future Lost and Found (LLB 3), and is implemented with the financial support of the “Creative Europe” Programme of the European Union, the “Culture” Programme of the Sofia Municipality, the National Culture Fund under the Programme “Recovery and Development of Private Cultural Organizations”, in partnership with the Goethe-Institut Bulgarien.
“There is a feeling that of all that is really “mine” I have only my body left. Sometimes strong, but more often weak and vulnerable. Let the body tell you what your heart feels”
April 14th, 2022, Morozivka Village, Kyiv region
“On February 24, 2022, on the evening of the day when Russia began its war on Ukraine, I urgently left Kyiv and went into forced isolation. Kyiv was shelled with cruise missiles and I moved to the village of Morozivka, 50 km from Kyiv. A week later, the war was 20 km from the place where I stayed. Around the clock, we heard explosions and shooting, and a week later we got used to these sounds. In early April, the Ukrainian Army drove out Russian troops from nearby villages and it became quiet here. Gradually, I began to regain mobility in my body and come out of the stupor. Then, I decided to shoot a few videos of improvisations in order to look at the bodily transformations that happened to me from the outside. Before that, I felt completely paralyzed. The only thing I could do was write poetry – suddenly, the thoughts and feelings began to take the form of words.”
The audio poem “War” became the leitmotif of last year’s festival edition, “Antistatic AntiWar”, played prior to every performance in the program.
“When I analyze my perception of events and information during this time, I get the impression that everything has become completely black and white. Halftones disappeared and people were divided into ‘friends’ and ‘foes’, I was searching for halftones to bring the ability to feel back into my life. It also became the ability to preserve the imaginative perception of the world beyond good and evil.
I felt it was important to capture this moment. That’s how the movie came out of being isolated in the war time.”
Anton Ovchinnikov is a multidisciplinary artist. He works as a choreographer, performer, composer, lecturer, and organizer of the annual international dance festival “Zelyonka Space UP” in Kyiv. Ovchinnikov graduated from Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts, MA. Since 2008 he has been the artistic director of the “Black O!Range” Dance Productions company. The company was recognized as one of the most distinctive and original dance projects in Ukraine. In 2015 Ovchinnikov cofounded All-Ukrainian Association “Contemporary Dance Platform”, striving to support young Ukrainian choreographers, integrate contemporary dance into the modern cultural life of Ukraine and establish a national center of contemporary dance. Since 2018 Anton Ovchinnikov has been a member of the expert panel of Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.