ART+FILM: UKRAiNATV

Join us for a conversation with founders of UKRAiNATV, moderated by Geert Lovink & Emile Zile.

UKRAiNATV is an experimental media project and Internet TV station that blends real and virtual worlds through live audiovisual bridges, streaming and global networks. Based in Krakow, Poland, it brings together artists, activists, musicians and media enthusiasts from Ukraine, Poland, Belarus and beyond – many of whom are refugees or nomadic creators unable to express themselves freely in their own countries. Founded in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, UKRAiNATV aims to create a space of solidarity and safety for marginalised communities.

Operating from #StreamArtStudio, the collective mixes new and used equipment to produce innovative, hybrid content, connecting people worldwide through transnational collaborations. Despite its instability, UKRAiNATV is a powerful hub that explores the intersection of art, politics, and media in times of conflict and change. It is one of the most experimental and resource-limited TV networks in the world, born out of a need for creative and humanitarian expression.

About Geert Lovink

Geert Lovink is a Dutch media theorist, internet critic and author of Sad by Design (2019) and Stuck on the Platform (2022) and Extinction Internet. He received his PhD from the University of Melbourne. In 2004 he founded the Institute of Network Cultures (www.networkcultures.org) at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA). In 2022 he was appointed Professor of Art and Network Cultures at the University of Amsterdam Art History Department. Since early 2022 he has been involved in support campaigns for Ukranian artists, in particular UkrainaTV, a streaming art studio/network, operating out of Krakow.

About Emile Zile

Emile Zile is an artist, filmmaker and performer. Using the overlooked remnants of network culture to create his performances, films and exhibitions, Emile engages with the boundaries of language to explore contemporary digital selfhood.