Bella Radenovic presents three films by Hooligan Art Community, a theatre collective from Kyiv, Ukraine. The screenings will be followed by a discussion with the company.
On 24 February 2022, the full-scale Russian invasion brought war to all of Ukraine. Hooligan Art Community’s work was disassembled overnight and its artists displaced. Two months after the invasion began, the situation in Ukraine allowed women from the company to travel to a residency in Germany, while two male artists remained in Ukraine, restricted by law from leaving the country. For the next four months, the collective made performance, film and installation work in different locations documenting their experiences of War and being displaced.
The Voices of Ukraine screenings will present three films created by Hooligan Art Community since 2020:
HOOLIGAN: IN THE FIELD (20 mins, 2020) follows three artists as they adapt to the Covid-19 pandemic. Filmed in 2020, the piece is a triptych of personal responses to the freedoms and restrictions encountered during lockdown.
24.RECONSTRUCTION (13 mins, 2022) presents the experiences of five Ukrainian female artists as they adjust to living in Germany after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Through poetic and lyrical visual language, the film examines the derealisation and disassociation experienced by displaced people.
RADIATION (40 mins, 2022) is an experimental film exploring the legacy of Chernobyl, inheritance and decay. It was filmed during the pandemic as part of a development residency at Dnipro Centre of Contemporary Culture.
The post-screening discussion with Bella Radenovic will explore Hooligan’s current work. In August 2022, the company were reunited in London where they created a new performance, ‘Bunker Cabaret’. The piece will return to the Lancaster Rooms, Somerset House on 24-25 February 2023 to mark one year since the invasion.
This screening event is made possible through the support of Voices of Ukraine, Somerset House Exchange, Volta International Festival, Urgent Action Fund and European Cultural Foundation.
Hooligan Art Community is an independent theatre company established in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2019. The group make performances, films and installations in non-traditional spaces that explore the dynamic relationship between actor and audience. The group has worked entirely outside of the state theatre system creating work that advocates for freedom of expression and equality.
Voices of Ukraine was founded by producer Andrea Ferran in March 2022 to commission, produce and distribute films by Ukrainian artists. The project has supported 30 filmmakers to create new short-form films, many of which have been screened at cinemas, on television and at festivals in the UK and abroad.
Organised by Dr Charlotte de Mille (The Courtauld), in collaboration with Peter Cant, Hooligan Art Community and Voices of Ukraine.
