On September 3 at 6:30 PM, we will watch two new video works that address the facts of the genocide of Jews during World War II and rethink this experience against the backdrop of Russian armed aggression against Ukraine — "The Flood" by Nikita Kadan and "Lemberg Machine" by Dana Kavelina.
“Flood” (2023) is a video installation created by Nikita Kadan together with Yarema Malaschuk, Roman Himey, Vadym Khudoly, Harry Krayevets, Nazgul Shukaeva, and Yuriy Izdryk. The work is based on immersion in the city lake of Ivano-Frankivsk, behind which not only the landscape but also the traumatic memory of the city emerges.
The starting point was the events of October 12, 1941, known as “Bloody Sunday” — the mass shooting of Jewish residents of Ivano-Frankivsk (formerly Stanislav) during the Nazi occupation. From 6 to 10 thousand people were killed in a day. The shootings took place on the territory of the modern New Jewish Cemetery. Urban legend says that part of this cemetery is supposedly located under the City Lake — the largest artificial reservoir in Frankivsk, created in 1955. In 2017, a mass grave with the remains of at least 50 people, presumably victims of those events, was found near the lake.
The video installation combines the image of water, sound, and words. The text by psychoanalyst and artist Harry Krayevets, performed by Yuriy Izdryk, reflects on oblivion and the overflow of memories, which also leads to oblivion. Vocalist Nazgul Shukaeva specially recorded vocals for the project that imitate the singing of water.
“Lemberg Machine” (2023) is a full-length animated film by artist Dana Kavelina, dedicated to the tragic history of Lviv during the Nazi occupation. At the center of the story is a fantastic machine capable of transmitting voices from the past and the afterlife, showing strange, frightening, but deeply poetic scenes that retell the stories of war, revolution, utopia, repentance, and the fate of the universe.
An important place in the film is occupied by the theme of the genocide of the Jewish population of Lviv, a city known as “Lemberg” in German and Yiddish. A significant part of the scenes is voiced in the Galician dialect of Yiddish. The texts were specially prepared by young researchers working with this linguistic tradition. In this way, the director restores the multi-layered cultural fabric of the city that was destroyed by the invaders.
The dolls — the main characters of the film — have a special history: they were kept in Melitopol, the artist’s hometown. After the start of the full-scale war, Kavelina’s mother sent them to the artist from the occupied territory. This gesture acquires symbolic meaning: through the material traces of childhood and memory, the story of the invasion and resistance continues.
The first video work lasts 11 min. 47 sec., the second — 60 min.
WHEN: Wednesday, September 3, 6:30 PM
WHERE: DCCC Cinema (ground floor), Krutogornyy Uzviz 21a, Dnipro. Entrance through glass sliding doors from the side of Uspenskaya Square
The cinema space can accommodate 50 people, so admission is only possible upon registration and a free donation (before the screening): https://forms.gle/CStc3zZhxN6vXeos6
Please fill out the form if you are sure that you will be able to attend the screening.
Design: Alla Sorochan
The film screening program is implemented within the framework of the exhibition “Looking into the Gaps II” by curator Nikita Kadan.
The exhibition project “Looking into the Gaps” was initiated by Voloshyn Gallery in 2024. The exhibition at the Artsvit Gallery and Dnipro Center for Contemporary Culture was realized in collaboration with Voloshyn Gallery (Kyiv) and Assortment Room (Ivano-Frankivsk).
