Artists at Work: Oleksiy Radynski and Younes Baba-Ali

About

Oleksiy Radynski will give a short introduction to his film Landslide (2016-18), followed by a screening of this 28-minute work. Landslide is a film that depicts a community of artists who “try to build a new society” in the cracks and pores of a collapsing social system. The film unfolds in central Kyiv, in a space that has been reclaimed from the city by forces of nature. As a result of a series of landslides, the area portrayed—Petrivska Street— became untenable and was subsequently occupied by outcasts and outsiders of all kinds. It also became a meeting spot for counterculture activists and the artistic underground. A secret graffiti team, a group of DIY artists and an avant-garde queer theater troupe that fled the war in Luhansk all struggle in Radynski’s film to create a place where they can coexist.

Younes Baba-Ali will screen fragments of recorded performances and video works defined by a process of experimentation in public space and beyond. In these works, he traces routes and patterns of migration and reveals systems of knowledge and meaning—particularly in relation to global culture and economics—through recurrent strategies such as the assisted ready readymade and sound. He will present works including Vu’Cumpra (2016), Without Negotiation (2018), Caroussa Sonore (2012), Etre et ne pas avoir (2014) and Untitled (Megaphones) (2014), among others.

This program is supported, in part, by Dennis Elliott Founder’s Fund; Hartfield Foundation; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF); Tauck Ritzau Innovative Philanthropy; and Ukrainian Institute.