Performance: Kateryna Aliinyk — The inability to share grief is not as bad as the inability to share beauty

Language accessibility: English

Free entrance

A new performance by artist and writer Kateryna Aliinyk, in cooperation with the Prague-based performers Polina Revunenko and Olesya Sydorenko.

The event is part of the program of the second day of the biennale’s opening weekend. The program at the Trade Fair Palace continues with further performances until 9 p.m. 

Kateryna Aliinyk writes texts about her family’s and her own experiences in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine, which have been under Russian occupation since 2014. She reflects on war and occupation through the lens of nature and agricultural practices, intertwining human and non-human perspectives. In her texts, she narrates landscapes she can no longer visit or touch, resisting the violence of war through the desire to share beauty.

Aliinyk’s texts are personal and poetic but also deeply political in a situated and grounded way. At the Biennale Matter of Art 2024, Aliinyk is presenting her paintings, and she was also invited to create a new performance. She will present a collective reading for three voices in the exhibition space in the Grand Hall of the Trade Fair Palace, in collaboration with two Prague-based co-performers from Ukraine and in dialogue with her exhibited paintings. The performance will be in English.

Aliinyk was born in 1998 in Luhansk, Ukraine. Since 2016 she has lived and worked in Kyiv. In 2021 she received her master’s degree in art from the National Academy Of Fine Arts And Architecture in Kyiv. In 2020 she completed a course in contemporary art at the Kyiv Academy of Media Arts as well as the Method Fund’s contemporary arts program Positions of the Artist. Her primary mediums are painting and text. Aliinyk mainly works with the topic of the landscape that has been damaged by the war and occupation. She works through images of nature and non-anthropocentric optics.

She participated in the exhibitions Motherland (2023), EVA International (2023), From Ukraine: Dare to Dream in the World of Constant Fear (2024), Our Years, Our Words, Our Losses, Our Searches, Our Us (2023), and State of Emergence (2022).

Performers: Kateryna Aliinyk, Polina Revunenko, Olesya Sydorenko

This project was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Culture of Solidarity Fund powered by the European Cultural Foundation.

Olesya Sydorenko is an actress and model who is currently completing her studies in the Nonverbal Theatre Department at the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Drawing on her experiences in various physical theaters, Sydorenko aims to touch and inspire viewers with the amazing stories of our world. She seeks to convey the passion and warmth behind each scene, inviting the audience to feel as though they are right there beside her, experiencing it themselves.

Polina Revunenko is an artist, student, jewelry maker, and freelancer who is originally from Ukraine but has now been living in the Czech Republic for nearly 10 years. She has been studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague for the past four years, nurturing her lifelong passion for the arts. Since her childhood, Revunenko has engaged in various forms of artistic expression, including gymnastics, dance, drawing, and experimenting with different musical instruments. Today, she is a professional musician, producing music for herself and others. Her artistic journey also includes jewelry making, where she infuses her creations with a unique artistic vision. Guided by principles of spreading love and kindness, Revunenko listens to her heart and creates art that resonates deeply with her soul. Although she doesn’t adhere to a specific style, her work is consistently heartfelt and genuine. Revunenko is open to new opportunities for performances, concerts, and other creative collaborations, always eager to expand her artistic horizons. Her work is a testament to her commitment to heartfelt expression and artistic integrity.