The British Council and Liverpool Biennial have announced the participants for the third SWAP: UK/Ukraine Residency Programme 2018. Six UK-based artists have taken part in short residencies in Ukraine hosted by partners in Kharkiv, Lviv, Odesa and Kyiv in August-December 2018, while three Ukrainian artists and one curator had their Liverpool-based residencies curated by Liverpool Biennial in November-December 2018.
UK-based artists
Dana Venezia (b. 1983, Jerusalem) is a London-based artist. She graduated with a BA in art and interdisciplinary studies from the Tel Aviv University and with an MFA from the Royal College of Arts. Dana’s work is predominantly film based, exploring the versatile boundaries between fiction and documentary. Disclosing moments of intimacy and fragility through the lives of the local communities and the displaced, Venezia calls spectators to reflect on their identities and sense of belonging, questioning their cultural conditioning and nationhood. Dana Venezia travelled to Lviv, Ukraine for a residency at the Jam Factory Art Centre during September-October 2018.
Helen Flanagan (b. 1988, Birmingham, UK) is an artist based between Birmingham, UK and Rotterdam, Netherlands. Helen received a Master of Arts in Fine Art and Design, Photography at AKV St Joost, Breda, Netherlands and BA in Photography at Falmouth University of Arts, UK. Her work combines real events with fictional narratives to produce video, sound, and installation. By constructing and imagining scenarios, often employing the absurd, she looks to investigate social structures and the political subtext of the everyday, focusing on emotions, labour and hidden trauma. Helen spent her residency at the Izolyatsia Platform for Cultural Initiatives in Kyiv during November-December 2018.
Jaimini Patel (b. 1974, London, UK) is a London-based artist who has completed a BA with honours in Fine Art at the University of Leeds, a MA in Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London and doctorate in Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford. In her work, Jaimini investigates the agency and potential of matter via a negotiation of boundaries, systems and performative acts. Jaimini travelled to Kharkiv, Ukraine for her residency at the YermilovCentre in August-September 2018.
Martim Ramos (b. 1983, Lisbon, Portugal) is a London-based artist working largely with photography and film. He has a BA in the History of Art and has recently graduated from a course in Photography at the Royal College of Art, London. His practice addresses the concepts of trauma, memory, and representation. In his work he employs a range of source material including found images and objects, literature, photography and film as well as methods of appropriation and intervention, working at the threshold between documentation and fiction. Martim spent his residency in Lviv at the Centre for Urban History during September-October 2018.
Riccardo Matlakas (b.1982, Naples, Italy) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work employs elements of performance, dance, painting and sculpture. He obtained a degree in Sculpture at the Naples University of Fine Arts and an MA in Social Sculpture at Oxford Brookes University. Riccardo creates cathartic actions and performances addressing contemporary political, environmental and spiritual concerns by investing the core of humanity that reaches beyond mere race and custom. He collects articles shaped during his performances as objects of memory and reflection. Riccardo spent his residency at the Kharkiv Municipal Art Gallery in August-September 2018
Susannah Stark (b. 1988, Dundee, UK) lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland. She holds an MA in the graphic arts from the Royal College of Art, London. Her work is an ongoing exploration of women’s public voice and its historical and contemporary pertinence. Working with voice, print and digital media she combines the economic, cultural, spiritual and personal in a narrative illustrating the contradictions of contemporary life. Susannah spent October-November 2018 in residency in Odesa, Ukraine at the Odesa Museum of Modern Art.
Ukraine-based artists
Anna Kakhiani (b. 1991, Kovel, Ukraine) lives and works in Kyiv. She earned a Master's degree in marketing and advertising (2013) at the Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics. Since 2015 she has participated in the arts programmes "Studio Visit" and "New Art School: Liquid City" by Cultural Project, the theatrical group "Truth/Perspective”. She has completed the "Artist" сourse at the Kyiv Academy of Media Arts (2016). In her projects, Anna focuses on her personal experiences and concerns employing a range of media in her work including installation, video, and film. She touches of the topics of psychological states, memory and corporeality, alterations of personal perceptions of public and other spaces. Anna completed her residency in Liverpool during November-December 2018.
Nikolay Karabinovych (b. 1988, Odesa, Ukraine) lives and works between Kyiv and Odesa. In 2011 he graduated from the Philosophy Department of the Odesa Mechnikov National University. In his art he works with video, text, sound and performative approaches in an examination of categories of place and time. Karabinovych pursues the "changing identities" of post-socialist eastern Europe with considerable interest, focusing on clashes between recent nationalist movements and contradictions in historical narratives. Another important aspect of his work involves working with the musical archive as a universally available resource for the study of change in our contemporary political, historical and social context. Nikolay spent his residency in Liverpool during November-December 2018.
Victoria Myronyuk (b. 1985, Kolomia, Ukraine) is an interdisciplinary artist engaged in performance and theatre, among other disciplines. She received a Master's Degree in Cultural Theory at NaUKMA (Kyiv), a Master of Arts in the Performing Arts and Visual Culture (Madrid), as well as a postgraduate programme in performance and scenography studies (Brussels). Victoria is engaged in work at the intersection of performative, participatory and visual artistic practice that explores issues of ritual structures, their boundaries and possibilities. Victoria completed her Liverpool residency in November-December 2018.
Ukrainian curator in residence
Lina Romanukha (b. 1985, Rivne, Ukraine) is an art-manager and curator. She received her master's degree in cultural science from NaUKMA and has worked at a number of artistic institutions including the Les Kurbas Centre for the Theatrical Arts, Karas Gallery, and the PinchukArtCentre. Following her residency at the Delfina Foundation (London, UK) she went to work at the IZOLYATSIA Foundation – Cultural Initiative Platform as a project manager, serving as curator for the “ART WEDNESDAY” project and overseeing the Foundation’s international residency programme. Lina spent her residency in Liverpool during November-December 2018.