A game of hide and seek with Mr. Lyatoshynsky

Research Residency at Bears in the Park

April 2023

Team: Bohdan Polishchuk (UA), Olena Polishchuk (UA), Yana Shlyabanska (UA),

Maria Shurkhal (UA/AT)

About the Project

A game of hide and seek with Mr. Lyatoshynsky is a residency project that took place in Vienna at the Bears in the Park studio. A group of interdisciplinary artists from Ukraine came into a collaboration with PUC Collective to work on an idea for the interactive site-specific performance.

The main objective of the research residency was to develop the multiple viewpoint on the body of work of a ukrainian composer Boris Lyatoshinky by putting his figure in a juxtaposition to the prominent austrian composer Arnold Schönberg.

The second goal of the residency was to introduce the Ukrainian group and the topic to the local artists which was achieved through a series of workshops that took place at Bears in the Park studio.

In a frame of the residency the project team has visited Arnold Schönberg Center and Schönberg House Mödling, as well as conducted interviews with music researchers specialized on Boris Lyatoshinky.

The interim results of the project are presented in a frame of Bears Workshop Day on the 15th of September.

The second part of the residency is taking part in Kyiv, from 23th of October to the 7th of November.

The project is realised through the support of Bundesministeriums für Kunst, Kultur, öffentlichen Dienst und Sport (Sonderförderung Ukriane-Hilfe) and the Austrian Cultural Forum Kyiv, the Austrian Cooperation Office Lviv.

Workhsops

The meeting/presentation offers an overview of the history of the art of theatrical costume in Ukraine, compiled by the author of the book "Ukrainian Theatre Costume of the XX-XXI centuries. Sketches". During the second part of the meeting, stage designer and theatre costume designer Bohdan Polishchuk and composer and sound designer Yana Shlyabanska share their experience of working in theatre and dance projects and their vision of the interaction between music, costume and performer's action.

Olena Polishchuk introduces the basic principles of costume design. The participants are able to try to create their own costume from sawdust and paper under the artist's supervision.

Residency Team

Bohdan and Olena Polishchuk

are graduates of the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture of Ukraine (Kyiv). They have been working with various state theatres of Ukraine for over 10 years and are actively involved in independent art projects. Bohdan Polishchuk is a curator of art projects, co-founder of the international Lviv Quadrennial of Scenography, author of publications on the art of scenography and theatrical costume.

Yana Shliabanska

Ukrainian composer and sound artist, author of chamber and orchestral music, interactive sound installations, music for theater and dance performances, and electroacoustic music that was performed in Ukraine, Portugal, Norway, Germany, Italy, France, Romania, Lithuania,Poland,the Czech Republic, Austria, the Netherlands, and the USA. Graduated from the National Academy of Music in Kyiv (faculty of composition). Participated with live electronic sets at the festivals Impuls (Dessau, Germany), Ruhrtriennale (Bochum, Germany), Jauna Muzika(Vilnius, Lithuania), and others. Laureate of the scholarship of the President of Ukraine and the Grant of the President of Ukraine for young artists. Received support from the French Institute for the Cite Internationale des Arts residency (Paris, 2022-2023)

Maria Shurkhal

was born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine. She started her professional education at the Serge Lifar Kyiv Municipal Ukrainian Academy of Dance and continued at the Anton Bruckner University, Linz. Now she lives and works in Austria as a freelance dancer, choreographer, and pedagog, collaborating with institutions such as BRUT, WUK, Kulturhaus Brotfabrik, and Rose Breuss/Cie Off. Verticality, PUC collective, the National Austrian team of Rhythmic Gymnastics, Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst FHNW, Angewandte among others. She was a part of the Huggy Bears Mentoring Program 2020/21 and she was selected for the scholarship program In the Field of Wiener Festwochen in 2021. Next to that, she is currently a Dance researcher in the FWF project Atlas of Smooth Spaces at the University of Music and Performing arts Vienna. (MDW) She is a holder of BKA Start Stipendium für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in 2022.

Complex topics require simple solutions and a playful approach

We propose to work with a number of complex issues raised by this project by turning to the form of play. It stimulates the shift of the viewer's position from the consumer-expert, who is

guided by the imposed framework of perception, to the position of a child, who is open to cognition through interaction and building his own experience and reflection - this is the form and model of interaction with the audience that we want to provoke. Homo Ludens, or Human Being at Play, is the vision of the contemporary artist that is at the heart of our search, but in fact, an interesting task is to transform not only the creator but also the viewer

of this performance into Homo Ludens. A full-fledged game takes place when both parties interact as partners.