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Dasha with the defences on the streets of Kyiv

Dasha with the defences on the streets of Kyiv

Kyiv comes to St Leonards

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February we have all learned so much about Ukraine. Coming up for six months since the war started we now know where it is geographically, about its exports – it is a major exporter of food crops, wheat, maize and barley, and sunflower oil, as well as wood. And, importantly, the resilience of its people. HOT’s Lauris Morgan-Griffiths learnt that through a direct link Kyiv artist Dasha Podoltseva of Seria_project is collaborating  with local theatre company ExploretheArch to recreate the atmosphere of the apartment blocks, Panelkas, to produce innovative, experiential theatre.

Panelka set at Explore the Arch

Panelka set at Explore the Arch

The first thing to say is that I haven’t yet seen the production, but it intrigued me sufficiently to find out more about it. ExploretheArch is well-known in St Leonards for its novel approach to theatre and this is yet another multi-media production. It is a soundscape around a particular form of Ukrainian architecture, called Panelka that, over sixty minutes, comes alive as a living and breathing building; a lively exploration of home.

Panelka, meaning panel, refers to a prefab form of construction which provides mass housing for more than half of the country’s population. Constructed in the 1980s and 1990s these buildings were designed to provide a bright, modernist future, personal space with communal utility services. And it is these apartment blocks that are seen, night after night, shelled and shattered, reduced to ruins. But this is where Kyiv artist Dasha Podoltseva of the Seria_project has lived and it is her memories that animate the drama.

Panelka from Dasha's window

Panelka from Dasha’s window

The narrative is built around the experience of growing up in a Panelka home. Dasha explores the history of this modernist architecture through her personal stories and shares her artistic response to the buildings’ patterns that pervade her art practice.

In the performance, the audience sits within their own panelka, amongst her images created with colleague Elena Orap.  Dasha arrived with her three children in London at the beginning of the war but returned to Kyiv because her parents did not want to leave their home. Elena is temporarily in Zurich.

Gentle sounds wash the apartment walls – of children learning to play the piano, morning routine clatter and night-time toilet flushes; smells of family dinners; views from the windows offer striking patterns.  The company were hoping to include live feed from Kyiv but that was considered too uncertain.

Dasha’s artwork referencing the sellotape that everyone has across their windows. She calls it a symbol of the resilient city, a health and safety protocol in case a blast shatters the glass. The grey sections reference the glue left behind on the panel when the sellotape is removed.

Dasha’s artwork referencing the sellotape that everyone has across their windows. She calls it a symbol of the resilient city, a health and safety protocol in case a blast shatters the glass. The grey sections reference the glue left behind on the panel when the sellotape is removed.

Architects often envisage their projects in a specific way and do not want it muddied by the inhabitants’ interventions. However, there is a strong desire for people to personalise and soften their home, making it their own space. Sometimes Panelka residents have made allotments around the buildings growing vegetables and flowers – something not supported by the architects. “So in a sense, it became a battlefield between the ideal city project and real life.”

This collaboration features a new score played live by Hastings composer/musician Sam Brown. “I love the beauty and delicate nature of Sam’s composition weaving through my visual responses to Brutalist architecture,” Dasha muses. “My work is about traces of ideas and thoughts within this architecture.”

The production is an engagement with Ukraine that acknowledges and looks beyond the fatigue of constantly viewing distressing images of bombed-out shells of buildings in worldly-wise media coverage. There was vibrant life before the war in Ukraine, there will be life after it.

This is a production of hope. “I don’t want my identity to be that of a victim of war,” Dasha stresses. “I am invigorated by imaginative conversations about how domestic life will be reshaped after the war.”

And this production is not over at the end of its St Leonards run. There will, hopefully, be further life in it, in Manchester next March.

Watch a video of artist Dasha Podoltseva.

Panelka 10-17 Aug 2022 at 7.30pm, matinees at 5pm, Sat 13/Sun 14. Archer Lodge, Charles Road, St Leonards-on-Sea TN38 0QX. £15 + booking fee – under 19s free. The performance lasts about 60 minutes.

A joint production by Seria__ project with ExploreTheArch Theatre Company. Directed by Gail Borrow, sound production by Frank Moon and set engineering by PoorlyBeetle.

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Posted 12:32 Wednesday, Aug 10, 2022 In: Performance

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