Thurs. 01.06.2023 | 18:00 - 22:00
with: Anna Mudra, Axxi Oma Anita Kopylenko, Viktoria Laykh, Anna Piliuhina, Hanna Liashenko, Ksenia Yanko, Ann Krekhno
Cultural mediator: Eva Yakubovska
curated by: Natalie Krekhno und Richard Pettifer
Exhibition, performance, presentation, discussion
Flutgraben e.V.
Am Flutgraben 3, 12435 Berlin-Treptow
Since its conception in May 2022, Cultural Workers Studio has presented many public events in Flutgraben and other places. Because of this flurry of production created in a state of emergency, the group had not always time to discuss differences in positions, concepts, and understandings of cultural activism and production inside the group, and develop common positions together.
In the frame of Project Space Festival Berlin, Cultural Workers Studio will present works that have emerged from a collaborative mediation process - undertaken together with appropriate conflict-resolution and management mechanisms to strengthen the group and allow better cooperation, support and mutual understanding. The exhibition will be accompanied by discussions in the Mehrzweckhalle and on the roof of the Flutgraben.
Cultural Workers Studio began as an emergency initiative by Viktoria Lyakh, Inga Zimprich, and Sönke Hallman in February 2022. Following an initial Open Letter stating opposition to russia’s full-scale invasion that year, the project saw meetings on Saturday afternoons beginning February 26 (“Cultural Workers’ Cafes”) to welcome cultural workers arriving from Ukraine, at Flutgraben e.V., as an informal opportunity to build community together.
The project evolved into a shared studio, rehearsal and exhibition space, and accommodation for and led by cultural workers from Ukraine. The project attempts to offer support and community for people from Ukraine to continue their cultural practices, listen to and meet their needs.The project is horizontal, consensus-based and solidarity/dialogue-driven, attempting access to convivial resources, open a space for possible collaborations, access to living needs including work, and emergency support.
Seating: Chairs
Age Groups: Suitable for all ages.
Languages: Artworks/performances in Ukrainian, English, and German, discussion event in English
Some artworks are visual only. Performance / discussion requires language skills.
Wheelchair users | Buggies: Not wheelchair accessible.
Hearing Impaired/ Deaf People: Short text components to supplement the works, translated into multiple languages. Some artworks are visual. But the majority of works have an audio component or are discussion based.
Neurodiversity: We offer a multi-disciplinary, collaborative, and participatory approach to artworks that also incorporates a cultural mediation component. It is hoped that visitors with various neurological characteristics will be able to access the general discourse of our presentation.
Blind People: Blind people are encouraged to attend, particularly members of the Ukrainian community in Berlin who may be blind or with sight loss. Attendees are likely to benefit from discussion and the large auditory components of works.
Further Notes: Visitors affiliated with forces invading Ukraine are encouraged to consider whether visiting our studio will benefit anyone. While we appreciate when people try to “reach across the divide”, work out how to contest their autocratic political structures, or gain further understanding of Ukrainian cultures as a “peace gesture”, it puts us in a difficult position when we are forced to make generous and open contributions to this at the moment, in addition to the inherent power of our own survival, continuation, and resistance.