Constructing Memory: Ukraine

Join us for an in-depth discussion of select projects featured in the exhibition Constructing Hope: Ukraine, as well as related work. Each project illustrates the importance of the role of story-telling, model-making, and interdisciplinary art and architectural practices during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In this program, hear from Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei, Kyiv-based artists, filmmakers, and members of Prykarpattian Theater, an art group that recently established the project Theater of Hopes and Expectations which was presented at the Ukrainian Pavilion during Venice Biennale Architettura 2023 and is currently on display at the Center for Architecture. In conversation with Malashchuk and Khimei, Lukas Pauer, a licensed architect, urbanist, historian, and educator, will discuss his recent curation of How to Steal a Country at the University of Toronto. Pauer’s exhibition transforms the gallery into scenes from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, using scale- and life-size dioramas, vignettes and tableaus to create an immersive experience that reveals the vital role architecture plays in the ongoing sovereignty dispute. Key invasion scenes employing techniques from theatrical set model-making establish sovereignty as a performative concept dependent on an audience.

Speakers:
Roman Khimei, Artist & Filmmaker; Member, Prykarpattian Theater
Yarema Malashchuk, Artist & Filmmaker; Member, Prykarpattian Theater
Lukas Pauer, Founding Director, Vertical Geopolitics Lab; Assistant Professor, University of Toronto

Moderators:
Ashley Bigham, Curator, Constructing Hope: Ukraine
Dan Roche, Editor, The Architect’s Newspaper
Betty Roytburd, Curator, Constructing Hope: Ukraine

About the Speakers:
Collaborating at the intersection of visual art and cinema since 2013, Kyiv-based artists and filmmakers, Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk graduated as cinematographers from the Institute of Screen Arts in Kyiv, Ukraine. Focusing on the role of the supplementary, their works engage with imperialist mythologies. They are winners of the main PinchukArtCentre Prize (2020) and the VISIO Young Talent Acquisition Prize (2021). Their short film Explosion Near the Museum won the National Competition at the 15th Wiz-Art LIFF. The duo also participated in the Future Generation Art Prize 2021, Baltic Triennial 14, Gothenburg Biennial 2023, and Kyiv Biennial, as part of group exhibitions at Haus der Kunst, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Albertinum, and others. Their video works are in collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Fondazione In Between Art Film Rome, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, TBA21, and Frac Bretagne. Currently, their new video installation is on view at Dare to Dream, a Collateral Event of the 60th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia 2024.

Yarema and Roman are members of the Prykarpattian Theater, an art group that established the project Theater of Hopes and Expectations which was presented at the Ukrainian Pavilion during Venice Biennale Architettura 2023. They also co-curated a group exhibition On the Periphery of the War – Kyiv Biennial 2023. Their work is currently on display at the Center for Architecture in the Constructing Hope: Ukraine exhibition.

Lukas Pauer is a licensed architect, urbanist, historian, educator, and the Founding Director of the Vertical Geopolitics Lab, an investigative practice and think-tank at the intersections of architecture, geography, politology, and media, dedicated to exposing intangible systems and hidden agendas within the built environment. The Vertical Geopolitcs Lab (VGL) is comprised of a practice-based research and teaching team with experience at the disciplinary intersections of the applied and social sciences in architecture, geography, politology, and media, employing techniques from visual storytelling, graphic design, scenic design, exhibition design, interior design, and architectural design with a particular focus on visual, material, and spatial analysis and immersion.

Daniel Jonas Roche is news editor for The Architect’s Newspaper. Previously, he co-organized a symposium entitled The Reconstruction of Ukraine: Ruination / Representation / Solidarity, a joint collaboration between Lviv’s Center for Urban History, Yale University, University College London, and the Visual Culture Research Center in Kyiv. He is also an adjunct professor at Kean University where he teaches courses related to ethics, labor history, and twentieth century art and architecture.