Four artists from the Ukraine have been in Liverpool for the last month taking part in an 8-week residency organised by the British Council and Liverpool Biennial. Join them at Bluecoat to hear them reflect on their practice, the visual arts scene in the Ukraine and their impressions of Liverpool. Following the presentations, Liverpool Biennial’s Ukrainian curator-in-residence Lizaveta German will chair a Q&A discussion with the artists.

Participants

Kateryna Berlova was born in Dnipropetrovsk in 1986. She graduated from Kyiv’s State Institute of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design in 2009. Kateryna uses her creative practice to explore questions of borders, be they mental, physical or social. Her work has been exhibited at Art Center "Ongoing" Tokyo, Japan; Mala Galereya of Mystetskyi Arsenal, Ukraine and Municipal Museum, Sturovo, Slovakia. Kateryna works in various media: painting, sculptures, installations, videos etc.

Oleksander Burlaka was born in Kyiv in 1982. He graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture (2005). He is a member of Melnychuk-Burlaka art group and a co-founder of the curatorial group "Hudrada". His work considers architecture and its transformation in post-Soviet countries. He worked on the architectural studies for the Kyiv Biennale’s publication The Book of Kyiv (2015), and has written articles for Kiew Architekturführer and the book Soviet Modernism 1955-1991: Unknown History, published by Architecture Center Vienna (Austria).

Mitya Churikov was born in Kyiv in 1985. He studied at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (Kyiv) and at the Berlin University of Arts (Germany). In his work, Mitya investigates urban landscapes and the materials which surround us. He has taken part in numerous exhibitions in Poland, Germany and Ukraine. Mitya works in various media: sculpture, photography and video installation.

Alevtina Kakhidze was born in Zhdanivka, in the Donetsk region, in 1973. She graduated from the National Academy of Art and Architecture (Kyiv) in 2004 and from the Jan van Eyck Academy (Maastricht, Netherlands) in 2006. Kakhidze's practice is based on her own discomforts and problems and working through them with humor and lightness. She was the winner of the 2008 Kazimir Malevich national Art Award. She has taken part in numerous art projects in Ukraine and abroad, and is the co-Founder of the Muzychi Artist Residence Programme. She works in various media such as installation, video, performance, lyrics and product design.

Lizaveta German graduated from Kyiv’s National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (2010), and has worked with several leading Ukrainian visual arts institutions. She took part in Berlin Biennial’s 2012 Young Curators Workshop and in PinchukArtCentre’s 2012-14 Curatorial Platform programme. In 2014 she co-founded the Open Archive research platform, and last year she co-edited the book Ukrainian Art of the 60s. She is interested in the history of curating and in the unofficial art scene during Soviet Ukraine.

Find out more about their work and experiences of Liverpool so far by watching these short videos on each artist: Kateryna Berlova, Oleksandr Burlaka, Alevtyna Kakhidze and Mitya Churikov.

These residencies are part of an ongoing partnership between Liverpool Biennial and British Council in Ukraine