This year’s interdisciplinary art programme DOCU/SYNTHESIS focuses on practices of sensitivity, re‑thinking and solidarity. As part of the 23rd Docudays UA, held from 5 to 12 June, the events will feature two strands: a selection of moving images (from films and video art to animation) with a feminist perspective by Ukrainian and British creators, and the Radio Live documentary performance, which gathers voices from across the world to reflect on experiences of war.
“This year’s interdisciplinary art programme sets a feminist lens through moving images by British and Ukrainian female artists and filmmakers. It invites us to cultivate sensitivity to different forms of discrimination and inequality, while rehearsing possible modes of resistance — from the familiar, such as critical reflections on history and the present, to the less obvious: remembrance, love and pleasure as forms of resilience and defiance. The programme also highlights the question of representation in its broadest sense — from the visibility of experiences to the languages and symbolic systems through which we describe ourselves and others. For the first time, it introduces an interdisciplinary form of documentary performance built on live stage dialogue, immersing audiences in the voices of others and fostering pillars of solidarity”, explained programme curator Oleksandra Nabieva.
A still from Message in the Bottle
The feminist‑focused moving‑image selection Her Lens: Ukrainian Focus will present works including Message in the Bottle by Kateryna Ruzhyna, Scales by Anna Shcherbyna, Broken Glass by Kateryna Voznytsia, And Where Now? by Svitlana Dovbush, Pietà by Olena Grom, and I Am a Rock by Teta Tsybulnyk. Selected through an open call, these projects reflect on themes of loss, trauma, struggle, various modes of expression, embodiment and motherhood.
A still from While the Gods Were Busy with Another Child
The feminist‑focused strand Her Lens: British Focus will showcase While the Gods Were Busy with Another Child and Art Class by Andrea Luka Zimmerman, A Radical Duet and No Archive Can Restore You by Onyeka Igwe, as well as His Lens by Jess Stephens in collaboration with FLAMIN (The Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network). This part of the programme centres on revisiting colonial experience, delving into shared and personal archives, and exploring representation of women and LGBTQI communities, alongside historical and social inequalities.
The programme’s context will be expanded through thematic discussions: on 6 June, Ukrainian female artists will delve into topics of memory, loss and the maternal experience; while on 8 June, British creators will address visibility, inequality and discrimination through a feminist artistic lens.
The Radio Live documentary performance
On 10 and 11 June, the Left Bank Theatre will host the first Ukrainian staging of the documentary performance Radio Live. Journalist and radio producer Aurélie Charon will bring together participants from France, Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, Lebanon and Rwanda to explore how war reshapes personal and artistic spaces. In addition, on 11 June during an artist talk with the project team we will discuss the interplay of testimony, journalism and theatre.
The DOCU/SYNTHESIS programme is supported by the British Council’s grant UK→Ukraine: Culture Sync.
The documentary performance Radio Live, as part of the DOCU/SYNTHESIS programme, is taking place with the support of the French Institute in Ukraine.
The 23rd Docudays UA is held with the financial support of the European Union, the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine, and the State Film Agency of Ukraine. The views, conclusions, or recommendations expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the governments of these countries. The authors alone are responsible for the content of this publication.
