Until December 30, you can see the personal exhibition of Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei ‘It already happened’ at Voloshyn Gallery Voloshyn Gallery in Kyiv. It brings together three video works of artists: ‘Dedicated to the Youth of the World II’, ‘Dedicated to the Youth of the World III’ and ‘Explosions Near the Museum’
‘Dedicated to the Youth of the World III’ (2023) is a reenactment of the artists’ film with the same title produced in 2019, which documented the rave Схеmа in Kyiv. While Kyiv’s youth appeared in that latter film to reclaim their post-revolutionary city in an intimate yet massive nighttime ritual — a kind of unrestricted freedom many looked forward to — the new version was created against a completely different backdrop.
The artists decided to recreate the party in September 2023 under martial law. Khimei and Malashchuk focused on the community members who replaced the previous rave participants after a prolonged pandemic and a full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine.
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‘Dedicated to the Youth of the World II’ (2019) is a film shot at the Dovzhenko Film Studio in April 2018. It is a static documentation of the biggest Ukrainian rave Cxema. It is a microcosm where there is no daylight, but there is fog. A sunny day outside the party brings the characters back to a reality that seems no less foggy. Gradually, this detached film turns into a portrait film, changing the focus from the general to the personal.
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‘Explosions Near the Museum’ (2023) documents the looting of the Kherson Museum of Local Lore by the russian occupiers in October 2022, which took place two days before the liberation of the city by Ukrainians. Before the russian occupation, the museum’s collection totaled more than 173,000 items, ranging from Scythian gold to World War II weapons.
The sounds of shelling and rocket attacks were recorded by Malashchuk and Khimei during filming at the museum on December 12, less than two kilometers from russian-occupied territory. Empty display cases and pedestals reflect not only physical loss but also cultural amnesia. The footage from the museum also shows a temporary numbness before the emptiness of loss. However, to replace the numbness, a voiceover offers to read out a detailed description of the stolen artifacts according to the museum catalog.
On December 17, ‘Explosions Near the Museum’ was awarded as the best Ukrainian film of the national program at the 15th Lviv International Short Film Festival Wiz-Art.
