Performance readings by Dasha Chechushkova "Do Not Wake Them, Perhaps Sleep Is the Only Comfort of the Wretched"

Performance readings by artist Dasha Chechushkova will take place on Saturday at the opening of the exhibition "You Didn't Imagine It, You Will Remain Forever" at DCCC.

The author's text combines poetic, documentary, and essayistic forms. It is built around the Greek root polys ("many") and explores the state of multiplicity in which a person finds themselves during wartime: a multiplicity of identities, voices, meanings, and experiences that overlap without losing their distinctiveness.

The text weaves together a personal story dedicated to the author's mother with reflections on the long-term ecological and medical consequences of the war, specifically the impact of heavy metal soil contamination on cancer rates. It also raises questions about responsibility and the distance from which war is perceived by those who are not its direct witnesses.

Dasha Chechushkova is an Odesa-based artist. In her practice, she works with total installation and the creation of a "situation" that she identifies as "co-being" and "co-event." She uses various media for this, with a personal diary-notebook remaining the central element. Between 2020 and 2022, she was a participant and co-founder of the creative community at OSRZ-2 (an abandoned shiprepair plant in Odesa), which influenced and developed the theme of situational, fragile art within the context of "co-existence" with the other.

"You Didn't Imagine It, You Will Remain Forever" is an exhibition and poetic meditation on what the landscape, time, and relationships between people will be like after the war.

The exhibition will open on September 19 at 18:00.

The performance readings will begin at 19:00.

The exhibition is part of the capacity-building and networking program for local cultural actors "Heritage: Space for Work". This program is supported by the Partnership Fund for a Resilient Ukraine (PFRU), funded by the governments of the United Kingdom, Estonia, Canada, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, and Sweden.