5.00.UA

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Location: Katowice, Poland
Date: Apr 2022 – Feb 2024
Organised by: Silesian Theatre
My role: artist, creator, coordinator

This documentary theatrical performance about Ukrainian actresses’ experiences of war and displacement is a crucial piece of my performative work. Directed by Yulia Masliak, it was created in frames of the residence for Ukrainian artists in Silesian Theatre in Apr-Jun 2022, the “5.00.UA” since then was shown in Katowice, Gliwice, Zabrze, Tychy, Krakow, Lublin, Opole, Poznan and Kassel (Germany).

I contributed to this work not only as a performer (physical theatre, singing, acting) but also as an author of 3 monologues and several art concepts. Among all, I’m the author of the poster idea and served as the model for it too: a naked woman in a suitcase, symbolising all the Ukrainian women who in the first days of war had to embark on a long journey outside their country completely unprepared for that. And for whom the suitcase became their second skin and the container of their own vulnerability.

In my texts for “5.00.UA”, I explore the idea of “living in a suitcase” or even ‘speaking out of the suitcase’. Two of my monologues encapsulate my reflection on emigration, maintaining relations with the family who decided not to leave; nomadism and socially disapproved in times of war feeling of adventurism (can Ukrainian emigrants ever express the joy of discovering a new country or the only possible emotion that they may project into public must be homesickness?)

Another monologue of mine is a study on dark Ukrainian humour and enemy dehumanisation (inspired by multiple memes featuring dead russian bodies in unnatural poses titled as “Russian Ballet on tour”). Through poses and body expression, I research physical similartities of a dancing and a dead body.