FLUXUS RESIDENCE
FROM 2 TO 15 AUGUST 2021, THE FLUXUS RESIDENCE INTERDISCIPLINARY UKRAINIAN-LITHUANIAN PLEIN AIR INITIATED BY THE EMBASSY OF LITHUANIA IN UKRAINE WAS HELD. THE PROJECT WAS FUNDED WITHIN THE COOPERATION PROGRAM FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND PROMOTION OF DEMOCRACY, AND IT WAS IMPLEMENTED BY THE PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS: CULTURAL DIPLOMACY INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE NGO AND ZHOVID THE RESIDENCE.
In addition to the purely artistic component, the project was aimed at setting a precedent – the development of local cultural, educational and social initiatives. It stressed the urgent need for cultural and educational decentralization in the regions of Ukraine, in particular in the dying villages of Snovsky district of Chernihiv region. Today, economic and cultural life is concentrated in the capital and large cities, and local communities experience a certain lack of opportunities for individual development, access to cultural events and non-formal education.
Thus, the mission of the project was to socialize and involve local youth in the activities of Zhovid The Residence, providing opportunities for their acquaintance with the latest art practices and elements of non-formal education during the Fluxus Residence plein air. During the two weeks, a number of events took place with the direct participation of the local community, namely: lectures with elements of interactivity, shooting of experimental films, workshops and performative practices.
In cooperation with the Zhovid district and local youth – pupils of the N.G. Rakhlin children’s music school, the First Snovsk gymnasium and the secondary school of Novi Borovychi village in Snovsk district – the project continued the cultural-artistic and social-educational initiatives of the CDI NGO and Zhovid The Residence – a cultural cluster that has a successful history of integration into the local context.
The new Fluxus Residence cultural initiative was dedicated to the celebration of the anniversaries of the founders of the Fluxus art movement – 90 years since the birth of George Maciunas (1931-1978) and the 100th anniversary of Jonas Mekas (1922-2019). The international art movement of artists, composers and designers Fluxus (from Latin Fluxus: current, flowing) was founded in the distant 1960s. However, its main ideas are globalism, the unity of art and life, the absence of boundaries between types and genres of art, experimentation, improvisation, play, elongation in time, and others – are very relevant today.
Ukrainian (Ivan Sautkin, Mykola Honcharov, Oleksiy Sai) and Lithuanian artists (Irma Balakauskaite, Jurga Barilaite, Denisas Kolomyckis) took part in the plein air. The residency ended with an unprecedented exhibition-performance for the local context, which featured works of various arts (visual, audiovisual, musical and performative). In the future, it is planned to publish an art album of the plein air and hold exhibitions-performances in Ukraine and Lithuania (2021-2022).