Utopia Today x REX Box
30.11.–27.12.2023, daily, 13:30 to 24:00
8.12.2023, 16:30 to 17:30 in room REX2: Anastasia Alexandrova (artlink) and Andrea Domesle in conversation about the video works and working across borders in times of war. Additional short video works will be screened.
Kassenhaus des Kino REX Bern, Schwanengasse 9, 3011 Bern.
Artists: Yana Bachynska, Sergey Bratkov, Diana Derii, Stanislav Kholodnykh, Zoya Laktionova.
Curated by the Videocity Team: Polina Chizhova, Andrea Domesle, James Stephen Wright.
“Deadline Ukraine“
At the beginning of the war in Ukraine in spring 2022, the Videocity team corresponded with Ukrainian colleagues and decided that what we could do to help was to give others a presence in the art world. So, we showed Ukrainian video art at REX Box Bern in September and October 2022, followed by exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad.
In the second year of the war, we ask – what is the role and task of art and cultural workers in the face of a war that continues and has become an “everyday normality" in its monstrosity?
Despite the barriers, we try to work together, discuss works of art, and support artists in the war zone in producing new works. The fact that this has been successful is almost a miracle given the absurdity of different everyday experiences. Usual production processes lose their meaning during a war, and yet it is not possible to work without a deadline. The selected videos give an idea of the long suffering and mourning in Ukraine.
The Project is organized in the frame of the Shifting Places programme, initiated by Artlink and supported by the Swiss Arts Council “Pro Helvetia”.