WE

CHRONICLES OF THE WAR, LOVE AND HATRED

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Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion WE began the search for an artistic language that would allow us to capture the new reality and reflect upon it. Answering the call the project “Chronicles of War, Love and Hate” was launched, which has been on since February 24, 2022 and develops with each new day of the war.

Initially WE’s team focused on documenting the war and for an extended period had been producing video reports, working in different regions of the country. The footage became an integral part to the performative installation “Chronicles of War, Love and Hate”, that aims to combine the external reality shot by a video camera with the experiences of the team, in other words, the inner world of a person. Thus, currently the project consists of several performative works united by an overarching concept.

It was devised that a symbolic meaning is acquired by the space in which the performative installation happens. The building of the theater (or other venue) thus is identified with the human body, that is, the viewer literally finds themself in the inner world of the collective author. Screen showing the documentary footage is an important element of the installation . It allows the audience to see the world through the eyes of the authors of the performance, to visit the places where WE were, to meet the people WE met. The text enters into a dramatic interaction with the video series and presents the stream-of-consciousness of the collective author — their thoughts, comments, memories, auto-reflections. This, so to speak, inner voice of the collective author accompanies the performative installation, creating an important dimension to the witness’ presence.

The libretto of the performance appears on the timeline in the editing programme as a documentary film, which the authors later deconstruct, divide into separate fragments and transfer to the theatrical space. We have already used this format at the Divadelna Nitra festival in Slovakia and Urbäng! in Germany, where we collaborated with local performers who read the authors’ texts in their native language.

The ever-evolving dynamics of the performative installation, its openness and its transformative potential constitute our response to the uncertainty of our future that is not easily subject to analytical forecasts and linear representations. WE enable the existence of an artistic piece that – seemingly in any moment – can be reassembled on the editing table according to the audience’s requests. The movement in time, the transition from the present to the future will also continue to change how we retrospectively view the documentary dimension of the performative installation. The future functions as the editor of the past, while the opposite statement also appears to be correct.

PART I

The first part of “Chronicle of War, Love and Hate” was created in the fall of 2022 by Sashko Brama, Mariia Yasinska and Lyuda Batalova. Its draft was presented at international festivals Divadelna Nitra (Slovakia), Urbang! (Germany). It was also shown at the Lesia Ukrainka Theater stage in Lviv. The first part narrates the beginning of the full-scale war through the experience of a small theatrical team which is documenting events, facts, names and life as such.

The first part is made up from reports created by WE. However, WE saw the research of ourselves as our main task, WE were searching for an answer to the question of what documenting is and how far a documentarian can or cannot go. A risky experiment, unpredictable in its results, an experiment with the borders and on the border, be the border of public and private, personal and political, creativity and life. The personal stories of the authors become a document and at the same time a material for research.

PART II

The second part of the project proceeds in the form of a performative installation which was presented for the first time in the Les Kurbas Lviv Academic Theater on October 17, 2023. It came about as an attempt to rethink the role and meaning of art during the war. During peacetime, timely art usually disrupts the ways in which the audience perceives the settled reality. It deconstructs meanings, puts ideas and ideals under scrutiny, tests faith.

But in times of great trials, when our very existence is threatened, when our world is collapsing, we all need meanings and faith more than ever – these are precisely the things that give us the strength to live and fight. The main task that WE set for ourselves within this project is to show the virtues of those who are by our sides, who have become heroes not only in our videos. We also aim to find symbols of faith in the chaos of tragic events.

The ascetic form of the performance-installation ties together various sketched novels into portraits of those whom WE met and those who gave us hope. Two female performers accompany the action with text-reflections of the collective author and live music. Authentic folk songs are played, arousing our genetic memory of past disasters and nearing the past and present, as if assembling together different realities.

Director, videographer – Sashko BRAMA
Producers – Lyuda BATALOVA, Maria Yasinska
Manager – Lyuda BATALOVA
Composer – Alyona Kovalenko
Performer – Daryna FEDYNA
Analytical support – Max SHUMAKHER
SMM Manager – Victoriia SOLOVIUK
PR Manager – Khrystyna HOLOVKO
Technical support – Volodymyr FANTA
Financial manager – Anastasia DRAPINSKA
Lawyer – Yurii HELEMEY
Drivers – Maksym KYLYMNYK, Iryna STEPANIAK, Nazar TAMKIV

The video also uses materials shot by: Serhii Palyanychka, Olga Klymuk, Iryna Stepaniak, Vyacheslav Korbut, Lyudmyla Batalova, Mykola Pastyk, Mykola Pastukh.

The project is supported by: the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, the Renaissance Foundation, the Ukrainian Emergency Performing Arts Fund, DOCU/HELP: DOCU/HELP: Support for the Ukrainian filmmaking community in the period of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Project partners: Les Kurbas Lviv Academic Theater, Hromadske Television, OKO press (Poland)