Independent Artistic Practices about South of Ukraine: Preserving Complexity
What is the Ukrainian South? For artists of the Antonin Artaud Fellowship, it is heavy industry, houses built out of shell limestone, and mirages. Discover the contexts of newly created works, exploring themes from queer identity in 'nowherelands' to the memory of the seas. We invite the IETM community to encounter works and get to know each other for future collaborations.
At the end of 2025, the Antonin Artaud Fellowship in Ukraine supported five independent artists to develop new works in Odesa, Pervomaisk, and Zaporizhzhia — the latter located only 30 km from the frontline.
These five works are sharp, nuanced inquiries into memory, ecology, and identity:
- The texture of memory: Mariia Cherkashyna interacts with shell limestone as with an "immovable South," exploring erased culture in Odesa.
- The gesture of protection: Halyna Andrusenko wraps living people in white cloth, treating them with the fragility usually reserved for monuments, in an act of preservation against the threat of shelling.
- Identity and sanctuary: Georgii Gogatadze creates a "Nowhereland” — a sanctuary for queer identity within conservative societies, exploring the periphery across seas.
- The geography of loss: The duo Oleksii Minko & Volodymyr Prylutskiy stand on the Black Sea shore to reflect on the Azov Sea, which remains under Russian occupation, using irony to navigate the distance of exile.
- Industrial ecosystems: Yelyzaveta Blyumska asks "What is the price of a city?" in her work, analyzing the ecosystems of electricity and bodies in frontline Zaporizhzhia.
Explore our digital archive, which hosts an extensive collection of works created by independent artists in Ukraine since 2022, showcasing a diverse range of themes and geographies. For each project, we provide detailed descriptions and trailers, with full video documentation available for professionals upon request.
We invite you to engage with these works as well as
- Contact us via [email protected] if you are interested in exploring more. We can have a short Zoom call, no strings attached, to get to know each other and find professional synergies;
- Use our digital archive of works for the purpose of programming;
- Make a financial contribution via the link to support the Fellowship and the long-term process of development of independent performing arts in Ukraine.
The Antonin Artaud Fellowship supports emerging artists and managers who explore new forms in theatre and performance in Ukraine. We support small-scale experimental works with potential for further development. We believe in the value of experimentation, regardless of the results.
