Making the Military into Arts: proof by Sevastopol festival
EUNIC in Ukraine is spanning its activities well beyond the capital, contributing to the international outreach of the country’s largest summer arts festival. Sevastopol War and Peace International Art Festival (May-September 2010) brings together different genres of arts: military music and cinema, photography, modern dances, performance and media-art. Sevastopol acts as the main character of the festival. The programme features the most spectacular forms of art interacting with the architectural and historical space of the city.
The reference to Tolstoi’s War and Peace monumental saga could hardly sound more appropriate that in the old naval citadel, bearing the traces of old conflicts like the Crimean war or WWII.
The scope of EUNIC participations is broad. The Institut Français d'Ukraine presents the Meta-Zone Exhibition and International Art School (1-12 August) 2010 in neighbouring Balaklava, at the Museum of Cold War (“Object 825”). Participants in the project investigate the metamorphoses of the famous Object 825 area, the submarines repairing plant, a mighty symbol of the Cold War period.
The Hungarian Culture Foundation with support from the Hungarian embassy tackles the Dialogue of Cultures theme with a cartoon exhibition (11-16 August at the Kroshitzki Museum), a selection of the 12th Hungarian Cartoon Festival’s finest.
WithinBalaklava Odyssey, the contemporary art festival in Balaklava Bay, British Council Ukraine will display an installation by Philip Jack(12-15 August 2010).
For many years, Philip Jack has made installation pieces that use records and record players to create evocative, sculptural works. These often suggest themes of redundant technologies (e.g. the media in which he makes his work – vinyl records) and also redundant places.
For Submarine Base in Balaklava, Jack will make a new small scale piece that takes as its starting point the theme of the festival itself (War and Piece), and its notion of underwater sound. The artist will activate the installation work, giving performances at set each day.
