Artist, film director Kazmina Oksana

The backstage histories. Daily routine, festive rituals and other bodily practices of some unfitted groups of Ukrainians. Incompetent and loose field study, Kyiv, Ukraine, 2014-2020.

In 2014, as the revolution, annexation of Crimea and war took place in Ukraine, I started filming my friends and myself. New aspects of reality, such as militarization and rising of far right movements, pierced Ukrainian social body, and my own body, as well. I felt I have to register alternative modes of being and people who usually fail to create official history. While filming everything most important for me - like stray dogs, daughter of my friend feeding birds in the garden, my partner taking the shower or people dancing at home “fuckgender" party - I felt I am not merely registering, but, actually, creating a story. This story unfolds on the back stage. While on the main stage glorification of the heroes and branding of the enemies takes place, creators of the alternative histories - artists, musicians, queer activists - make their invisible work. They obscure binaries during (anti)fashion erotic shows and at home feminist exhibitions, oppose violence by shooting deconstructive porn horror video art, they abandon capitalism by sharing resources with each other. Presenting these archives of Kyiv underground life, which I’ve been filming for 5 years, I would love to propose an alternative history, a new collective experience of the place and time. What would be the official history if we could apply a different montage to the events? What would be our today if we could create new experiences instead of reproducing already existent once? We need to collage the world into Utopias in order to bring the magic back to it.