Queer 'Eastern' European Anti-Colonial Solidarity Fundraiser
spalarniaLiudmilaTaras Gembik, Vlad(a) & T Vazheyevskyy
11.03.2023
Performance Events
Saturday 11 March 2023
All ticket and donation proceeds went to NGO Insight in Ukraine
There is still time to donate HERE via PayPal and 100% of your donation will go to NGO Insight in Ukraine
Alternatively, you can purchase a limited temporary tattoo edition by Anastasia Sosunova here
An evening of 'Eastern' European anti-colonial solidarity featuring performances by spalarnia and Liudmila, drag and poetry readings by Taras Gembik, T & Vlad(a) Vazheyevskyy as well as books, artist editions and merch from 'Eastern' Europe and its diaspora in a collective effort to support queer people affected by Russia's war in Ukraine. All ticket proceeds and your donations will go to NGO Insight, providing psychological and legal support; medicines, hormones and food; relocation and safe houses for permanent stay to LGBTQIA+ people during the war in Ukraine.
Solidarity stall featured a range of contributions from colleagues, friends, and friends of friends: temporary tattos by Anastasia Sosunova; SDK Slonecznik's Decolonise Russia t-shirts; fucked up systems will always fall spalarnia t-shirts; Oberih publication by Understructures; Queer Ukraine: An Anthology of LGBTQI+ Ukrainian Voices during Wartime (edited & translated DVIJKA Collective); A Very Brief and Subjective Queer History of Ukraine edited by Anton Shebetko, and counting!
spalarnia is Polish performance artist Wojciech Kosma’s latest musical project exploring love, pleasure, intimacy and gender through poetic avant-pop tracks that draw equally from traditional Polish folk and current dance music vocabulary and seeking to establish deeply personal new mythologies rooted in Polish culture and tradition while promoting a queer, secular and anti-nationalist sentiment. spalarnia dances and sings live with a minimal stage setup, only his presence and bespoke light choreography. He performed at Tate Modern, The Island Club, Interstate NYC, Ephemera Festival among others. His debut album USTA is out in May 2022.
Liudmila is a Lithuanian bedroom hyperpop collective, mainly featuring Milda Januševičiūtė and Miša Skalskis. Conceptualised as an auto-tuned pop bang fan fiction, and alter-ego of the artists, Liudmila’s lyrics speak to the angst of misfits dreaming big (and the loneliness and inherent contradictions of modernity). Liudmila have presented live performances at Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki (2022); the 14th Baltic Triennial, Vilnius (2021); and Rupert, Vilnius (2020). They released the Album 'Liudmila' in 2021 and have shown video and sculptural works at Editorial, Vilnius (2021).
Milda Januševičiūtė (b. 1990, LT) is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural sociologist based in Vilnius, Lithuania. Selected projects include JCDecaux Prize (2019); film presentations at PAF: the Festival of Film Animation and Contemporary Art in Olomouc, Czech Republic (2018), and participation in the 6th Alternative Education programme at Rupert centre for Art and Education (2018).
Miša Skalskis (b. 1994, Vilnius) is an audio-visual artist based in Helsinki whose practice encompasses sound pieces, videos and publications. He has presented work at Sorbus Gallery, Helsinki; Ehkä, Turku; CAC, Vilnius; Rupert, Vilnius; Sonic Acts, Amsterdam; Rijks, Amsterdam; Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven; the Community, Paris, and Macau Design Center.
Taras Gembik is a cultural worker and performer from Ukraine. Cooperating with the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw as an educator since 2018, he works on the integration of migrants, by providing a platform for them to share their perspectives and experiences within the public program of the Museum. Together with Maria Beburia, he created the BLYZKIST (“closeness”) collective, which focuses on creating a multi-level community of people with experience of migration. Since July 2021, he has been running the Anti-Crisis Film Club together with the Daj Herbate foundation at the Museum of Modern Art for people in a homeless crisis. From the beginning of Russia's full invasion of Ukraine, he has been co-creating the "Sunflower” Solidarity Community Center at Pańska Street. He also works with language and poetry, where he tries to find words to express the inexpressible - the atrocities of war, the experience of refugees and eradication.
T Vazheyevskyy is a poet from Kyiv, Ukraine, who resettled in London after the full-scale invasion of his country. His work revolves around concepts of collective grief, spectatorship, (un)belonging, and corporeal horror. He is the ½ of DVIJKA, a duo of artist-researchers working in the fields of performance, film, writing and archiving.
Vlad(a) is a performance artist and researcher from Kyiv, Ukraine and is currently based in London. In their work, they focus mainly on Ukrainian queer history and anarchoqueer utopias. They make up ½ of the DViJKA collective, a duo of artist-researchers working in the fields of performance, film, writing and archiving.
If you have any additional access needs or if for any reason the ticket price is an obstacle to attend, please contact Jessie Krish; jessie [at] cellprojects.org
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Generously supported by the Finnish Institute, Lithuanian Embassy in the United Kingdom and the Lithuanian Culture Institute.
