Season’s Greetings

Artistic residencies, discussions, and events about cinema, music, literature and visual art are opportunities for Ukrainian artists to be heard worldwide. Let’s recall some projects and results. 

Literature

• Writers of the Ukraine Lab online residency have created six documentary essays on war, environment, and disinformation. Read essays in English or Ukrainian.
• The Cheltenham Literature Festival held Ukraine Day: Ukrainian writers, musicians, poets and illustrators held a series of events to inform the attendees about the modern poetry, music and visual arts scene of Ukraine. With all events sold out, the speakers were met with standing ovations. Read more and see photos.
• Participants of the Summer School of the British Literary Translation Center have translated excerpt from Artem Chekh’s book ‘Who Are You?’.
• Lviv BookForum took place partly live and partly virtually thanks to the Hay Festival. Conversations about art in times of war, memory, gender equality, loss, corruption, imperialism and hope are available for viewing. Enjoy!
• Togere with partners, we also organized a national stand at the London Book Fair. The focus was on popular science literature. Read more in the article by Chytomo (in Ukrainian).

Films 

• Ukrainian documentaries were screened at Sheffield DocFest. Watch short interviews with filmmakers.
• Ukrainian films were screened also at film festivals in Leeds, Brighton, Cornwall and Belfast, where the British premiere of the film Luxembourg, Luxembourg took place.
• Seven Ukrainian films were screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Visual art 

• An animated projection of Ukrainian mosaics was shown at the Greenwich+Docklands International Festival. Watch video of the installation and a lecture on the monumental art of Ukraine.
• I’M FINE! — a project about short animation. How to maintain mental health and be motivated in a world that changes every minute? Watch animations and lectures.

Music

• Band ‘Krapka;KOMA’ performed at The Great Escape music festival. Watch th part of the perfomance on the band’s Instagram.
• The UK’s largest international festival of new and experimental music HCMF hosted wide Ukrainian programme. The opera ‘Chornobildorf’ by Roman Grygoriv and Illia Razumeiko opened the festival. Enjoy photos from the festival.
• For the first time, the Bouquet Kyiv Stage Festival took place outside of Ukraine — in Oxford. Read more here.

Performative art 

• 5 Ukrainian plays were translated into English as part of the “Transmission.UK” programme. The two translated plays have been selected for publication in the Anthology of Ukrainian drama from 2013. Read more about plays and translators.
• The project ‘Let the Body Speak’ continues, Ukrainian dancers can use their body language to tell the world about war. All videos are available on the YouTube channel. 

This year has been about support and cooperation, and as the winter holidays are coming, we wish you to move forward and create. These are Ukrainian artists and cultural workers who inspire us to do so — they speak to the world about Ukraine in the language of poetry, music, cinema, dance, and illustration. Thank you, and let’s continue to move together towards victory!

The UK/Ukraine Season of Culture is jointly organized by the British Council and the Ukrainian Institute.