School of Resistance : Art in conflicted areas

What can art do in areas of conflict? How can artistic practices be adapted to the conditions of a violent environment? The “School of Resistance” of the IIPM/Milo Rau invites, together with the Münchner Kammerspiele, artists, activists and academics from Ukraine to a joint exchange. What does cultural production in our distant neighbour Ukraine mean for a country that has been living in a state of war for several years? What does art mean in the conflict zones and what does art about war mean?

In a conversation with curator and dramaturge Martín Valdés-Stauber, Andrii Palatnyi, who is responsible for the international collaborations of the transdisciplinary Gogolfest and who has worked as a curator for the Ukrainian Capital of Culture 2021 Mariupol, looks at artistic and civil society efforts in the immediate vicinity of the combat zone. How can artistic projects with civil society, especially with young people, facilitate social cohesion and foster emancipation? Oksana Lemishka discusses the social significance of art, especially for conflict areas and countries at war. Drawing on many years of research, she reports findings on the different regions of Ukraine, including occupied territories not controlled by the Ukrainian government, and provides research evidence on the transformational potential of art. Finally, award-winning playwright, screenwriter and director Natalka Vorozhbyt reports about her research, experiences and filming in conflict zones. With her play “Погані дороги” (Bad Roads), written in 2017 for Royal Court in London, she succeeded in creating an impressive testimony in six chapters to the suffering in the (East) Ukrainian war. She filmed five images of her text in 2020 creating the movie “Bad Roads”. The Ukrainian Oscar committee recently picked the film for the 2022 nomination. After the discussion, Natalka Vorozhbyt will present the missing, sixth image in an in bilingual Ukrainian-German interplay with Kammerspiele actress Johanna Eiworth. What does it mean to understand art as testimony?

With this talk, the IIPM/Milo Rau is continuing a long tradition of artistic engagement with conflict zones. The talk is also part of the Kammerspiele’s efforts within the artistic Sisterhood to draw attention to the ongoing war situation within its distant neighbour Ukraine.

In search of strategies of resistance, Milo Rau, the IIPM (International Institute of Political Murder) and the NTGent founded a globally networked “School of Resistance” as a livestream debate series in May 2020. Now, as a symbolic institution of the future, it is landing at the Münchner Kammerspiele and, together with the artistic “Sisterhood Kyiv-Munich”, is questioning civil and artistic practices of resistance. Within the framework of the Sisterhood, the Münchner Kammerspiele interlocks and networks permanently with civil society actors and artists in Kyiv, Munich and beyond.