Ukrainian audiovisual art and new media festival Construction has teamed up with the Creative Europe-supported SHAPE+ platform for its 2023 edition to present a showcase of new and upcoming artists.
The eight edition of the festival, which took a break last year due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, will partially take place outside the country this year for the first time, settling instead in Dresden, Germany. The event will kick off later this month with a joint residency of Ukrainian and German artists, encompassing NFNR (Olesia Onykiienko, who is part of this year’s SHAPE+ roster), Cornelius Uhle and Charles Washington. Over two weeks, they will work on a joint art project, which will later be presented at the festival.
Several Dresden locations will also host artist talks by musicians and art groups, in addition to musical performances. The festival will draw to a close with a concert of Ukrainian and international sound artists, which will include SHAPE+ artists Maryana Klochko, Katarina Gryvul, Bella Baguena and Ursula Sereghy.
Construction is also planning to put several events on in its usual home of Dnipro, where the festival begun in 2014. The Dnipro edition will include a three-day festival in September and a series of events throughout the summer.
"We started thinking about organising Construction abroad last spring as we gradually returned to work following the start of Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine," said festival director Andrii Palash. "We wanted to provide a platform for Ukrainian musicians to be heard because our culture is still not sufficiently represented in other countries."
SHAPE+ describes itself as a "European platform for innovative music and audiovisual art co-financed by the Creative Europe programme." It aims to support "emerging talent, connecting them to local communities and audiences through collaborative residencies with multiple artistic outcomes, commissioned artworks, as well as one-off presentations and performances."
The initiative previously hosted showcases at Berlin’s CTM and Brussels’ Schiev, and will pop up at a number of other European festivals throughout the year.
Construction Dresden will take place from June 19 to July 1, 2023. Find more information here.
