“People support memory with those
who is far away, write to them…
And life, it's here, under the nose. "
Petro Baitala
Reflecting on the performance, we talk about the presence of man here and now, the process, the action in time and space, the duration… Live, empathize, share, transmit, delegate. These categories are inseparable from life. They are like a ray that is constantly in a state of movement and change: there is a beginning that exists as a sacrament, it is a special state of unity of the artist with the idea, when they begin to interact. And only then this action becomes visible, public, mentally or physically attracts the viewer. The artist gives impetus, but how far will it penetrate, how deeply will it touch the world?
During expeditions and interviews, our group constantly tried to find out what a performance is in the Ukrainian environment, what directions and themes artists work with. When does it begin and when does it end, how does each author define it for himself, and how can we summarize all the collected materials, in what form to cover them, how to structure them? #Nbsp;
Any archive is connected with history and retrospective, it is memories, facts from the past. But this project is not only about a set of materials, their preservation, although these issues have always appeared in conversations during our meetings with artists, but above all about the value of what happened and is happening. We tried to look at the archive as a living process.
The idea of the appearance of the “Performance Archive of Ukraine” and its implementation testifies to the presence and value of events, personalities that have begun and continue to develop the genre of performance in Ukraine. We will never get into the context of yesterday or this morning, especially fifty years ago, but the collection and analysis of information gives a sense of experience, real, creates a memory of what is not now, allows us to explore fragments of situations and events. In this way we get the opportunity to fantasize, which generates a creative impulse, the opportunity to discover something new, avoiding the need to re-tread the path. All you have to do is know where she is, remember the direction she is going, continue and fork this way. # Nbsp;
Our group consisted of eight people who were practically and theoretically involved in the performance. The final group show took place in each city, which was a challenge for all participants - an improvised experimental space of the Iron Water Park in Lviv, a pub on Podil in Kyiv and the central street of Kharkiv. We have a different approach to performance, its heterogeneous interpretation, but we were looking for points of interaction simultaneously, consistently, together and independently. We tried to catch, to feel the moment already, because it can stop unexpectedly. A separate performance was our discussion of the idea and the initial conditions for joint final work in each city. Over the course of three weeks, we interviewed 39 artists in Lviv, Kyiv, and Kharkiv. Some lasted an hour, some nine hours. The opportunity to communicate live gives a holistic vision of the individual. We met artists whom we knew in absentia and with whom we had not crossed before. We met like-minded people, which gave a sense of unity. The final meeting in Dnipro took place in an international format with the participation of artists from Ukraine, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and Great Britain. And such meetings inspire cooperation without borders. # Nbsp;
The work on the launch of the Archive brought together dozens of very different people, from different backgrounds, visual arts, poetry, body art, sound, etc. They all work in the field of performative art or performance. And despite the differences, the specifics of the directions, we are united by a common idea - to make our art history visible, eloquent, to enrich and appreciate it. The 21st century is a period of filling gaps with truth, sincerity, sensuality, abstract content, public and personal gesture, because, as we have seen, this is what performance is for artists. Archive is a story about memory that is designed to create something new. # Nbsp;
The “Performance Archive of Ukraine” as well as the performance itself is a process, a duration. The materials collected during the expedition (recordings of interviews with artists, documentation of performances) once again prove that Ukrainian artists are original, with different experience, school, with deep views of the world. Of course, the three cities describe only part of the geography, there are many places worth visiting and exploring. In addition, new initiatives and groups appear every year, and this becomes the basis for future projects. But already today the archive reveals the scale of the performance community in Ukraine, which gives grounds and desire to create a monograph on this art, an incentive to learn about performance and its realities here.