Visual Studies Platform (VSP) invites you for the screening and discussion of films by Piotr Armianovski, critically reflecting on the “othering” myths of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. His films depict consequences of war and individual and collective agencies in three locations: Donetsk, 2014 (Elections, which did not happen), Kramatorsk, 2015 (In the East), and Avdiivka, 2018 (Avdiivka National Museum). Through his documentaries, you can gain insight into the conditions and war-time experiences in Donetsk, Kramatorsk, and Avdiivka before the full scale invasion. In the (online) discussion with the filmmaker we will focus on how collective identities are made and unmade and discuss the issues of landscape construction and cultural appropriation, exploring the role of artists in (re)shaping them.
Piotr Armianovski (Donetsk, 1985) is a Ukrainian artist, performer and director. In his works Armianovski explores the themes of memory, the loss, social and symbolic constructs of everyday life. Piotr works with video, performance art and virtual reality. For over a decade, Piotr Armianovski has been chronicling the viewpoints and responses of individuals hailing from the East of Ukraine.
The program is curated and moderated by Oleksandra Kokhan (MA student in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology) and Kateryna Osypchuk (MA student in History in the Public Sphere, Department of History).