Join us for an in-depth discussion of select projects featured in the exhibition Constructing Hope: Ukraine, as well as related work. Each project illustrates the importance of the role of story-telling, model-making, and interdisciplinary art and architectural practices during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In this program, hear from Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei, Kyiv-based artists, filmmakers, and members of Prykarpattian Theater, an art group that recently established the project Theater of Hopes and Expectations which was presented at the Ukrainian Pavilion during Venice Biennale Architettura 2023 and is currently on display at the Center for Architecture. In conversation with Malashchuk and Khimei, Lukas Pauer, a licensed architect, urbanist, historian, and educator, will discuss his recent curation of How to Steal a Country at the University of Toronto. Pauer’s exhibition transforms the gallery into scenes from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, using scale- and life-size dioramas, vignettes and tableaus to create an immersive experience that reveals the vital role architecture plays in the ongoing sovereignty dispute. Key invasion scenes employing techniques from theatrical set model-making establish sovereignty as a performative concept dependent on an audience.
