World premiere of new video work from Ukrainian-Australian artist Stanislava Pinchuk to open at ACMI this February

World premiere of new video work from Ukrainian-Australian artist Stanislava Pinchuk to open at ACMI this February

ACMI is proud to premiere The Theatre of War, a new exhibition by celebrated artist Stanislava Pinchuk, recipient of the Mordant Family Moving Image Commission for Young Australian Artists. Opening at ACMI on 19 February 2024, the three-channel video work explores Homer’s ancient war poem The Iliad, and its ongoing relevance to contemporary conflicts.

Shot in three different locations – a theatre used for cultural events during the siege of Sarajevo, a current training base for Ukrainian soldiers in the UK, and the tomb of Homer on the Greek island of Ios – The Theatre of War features three performances of the opening lines from The Iliad, all filmed in settings that represent the title of the work. Homer’s epic poem is one of the earliest and most significant texts of global literature. Beginning ‘in media res’ nine years into the Trojan War, it is a grand tale of rage, in which victory is inseparable from terrible grief and loss. Pinchuk sets her work nine years into the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, weaving together three charged performances that draw on ancient storytelling traditions to express the suffering contemporary conflicts cause.

Born and raised in Ukraine, educated in Melbourne and currently living in Sarajevo, Stanislava Pinchuk is an artist exploring the changing topographies of war and conflict zones. With a multidisciplinary practice that spans drawing, installation, tattooing, film, and sculpture, Pinchuk surveys the ways in which landscape holds the memory of political events and the violation of human rights.

The Mordant Family Moving Image Commission for Young Australian Artists resources artists under 35 years to create contemporary moving image works that reference social, cultural, or political issues with energy and originality. The commission was established in partnership and generously supported by Professor Cav. Simon Mordant AO and Catriona Mordant AM, John Allsopp from Web Directions, the City of Melbourne, and ACMI.

Artist Stanislava Pinchuk said: “It has been exhilarating, and terrifying to make my first film: a love letter to Homer. But above all, I am so deeply grateful to have received such trust in the work, into which I have been able to pour my grief, rage, sorrow and hope all alike.”

ACMI Director & CEO Seb Chan said: “We are proud to display Stanislava Pinchuk’s new work at ACMI. The Theatre of War offers audiences a chance to experience a unique and ambitious screen-based work from an exciting young artist reflecting on the present. We are especially excited to bring Pinchuk’s practice to a wider public audience. The exhibition extends the impact of ACMI’s vibrant commissioning programs which in collaboration with ACMI’s industry partners and philanthropists, saw nine new artist commissions in the 22–23 financial year, with over $300,000 of direct funding to artists.”

Simon Mordant AO said: “Catriona and I are proud to support young Australian artists to challenge and extend their practice by making original works that reference a range of issues facing our world today. We look forward to seeing Stanislava’s work on display at ACMI this February.”

The Mordant Family Moving Image Commission for Young Australian Artists is a three-year commissioning program. Previous recipient Jason Phu premiered his work Analects of Kung Phu – Book 1, The 69 Dialogues between the Lamp and the Shadow at ACMI in 2021. Serwah Attafah, a multidisciplinary artist and musician, known for creating surreal cyber dreamscapes and Afrofuturistic artworks with contemporary themes, has been named the third and final recipient of the commission. Her proposed work The Darkness Between the Stars, will premiere at the museum in 2025.

Stanislava Pinchuk: The Theatre of War will show in ACMI’s Gallery 3 from 19 February 2024 – 9 June 2024. Stanislava Pinchuk will be joined by writers Maria Tumarkin and Nam Le for an in-conversation event entitled Keepers of Memory - Artists, History & Loss at ACMI on 24 February. This panel discussion will look at the critical role of artists as recorders of conflict and keepers of memory and explore representations of war since the battles described in The Iliad.

For further details visit acmi.net.au

NOTES TO EDITORS:

• Download media assets for Stanislava Pinchuk here.
• Download images and video files for Serwah Attafuah here.
• For further information please contact media@acmi.net.au.

Stanislava Pinchuk: The Theatre of War
19 February 2024 – 9 June 2024
ACMI, Gallery 3
FREE

Keepers of Memory - Artists, History & Loss
24 February 2024
ACMI, Swinburne Studio
FREE

ABOUT ACMI
ACMI is Australia’s national museum of screen culture. The museum reopened in February 2021 after a two-year, $40 million redevelopment – an architectural, programmatic and technological transformation. Navigate the universe of film, TV, videogames and art with us. ACMI celebrates the wonder and power of the world’s most democratic artform – fostering the next generation of makers, players and watchers. ACMI’s vibrant calendar of exhibitions, screenings, commissions, festivals, and industry and education programs explore the stories, technologies and artists that create our shared screen culture. More at acmi.net.au.

ABOUT STANISLAVA PINCHUK
Stanislava Pinchuk is an artist exploring the changing topographies of war and conflict zones. With a multidisciplinary practice that spans drawing, installation, tattooing, film, and sculpture, Pinchuk surveys the ways in which landscape holds the memory of political events and the violation of human rights. Her source materials, such as data, documentation and detritus are collected and surveyed through fieldwork. Pinchuk’s critical practice reconsiders perceptions of geopolitical borders, migration, climate catastrophe and nuclear crises.

Pinchuk’s artwork and publishing archives are held in numerous Australian and international private and public collections including Le Louvre’s Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France; The National Gallery of Australia; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia; The National Gallery of Victoria, Australia and many more.

Pinchuk was born in Ukraine in 1988 and moved to Melbourne at the age of 10. She graduated from the University of Melbourne in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts and double major in Art History and Philosophy. She currently lives in Sarajevo.