Film / Existence is Resistance
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EXISTENCE IS RESISTANCE is a collaborative critical art project curated by Louis Armand, Kasia Bazarnik, Lyana Mytsko, Sandra Pasławska, Tyko Say, Marta Sloboda, David Vichnar.
In the face of war, genocide & other existential forms of oppression, the refusal to be “erased” may represent the ultimate act of resistance, in the awareness that NOTHING ELSE NEED BE EXPECTED OF IT. In this sense the cultural “front” is truly a grey zone, lending ethical impetus to a resistance that is no longer obliged to be FOR something; it is sufficient that it IS. As an act of survival, art in this context assumes a highly ephemeral yet also transcendental form, expressed by means that do not conform to pre-existing “aesthetics.” To be, to continue to be, to have been: refusing the non-being of individual & collective erasure. Our focus is thus the culture of resistance produced by the war in Ukraine & its consequences.
Specifically, acts of refusal of cultural erasure & acts of existential self-affirmation; ephemeral artefacts of individual & collective survival; the cultural “front” as radical ontology; & the emergence in everyday life of guerrilla art forms & critical-art actions (happenings, zines, squats, graffiti & other “archives” of the present).
Project activities include workshops, samizdat publishing, street art, art triage (trauma-therapy), pop-up exhibitions & critical encounters. Areas of focus include educational & cultural events designed to communicate the lived reality of resistance to the Kremlin’s “non-war” & to give objective representation to a hidden “ideology of the unrepresentable” & its human cost. This includes giving visibility to survivors & veterans; empowering them to represent their own experiences; deploying art strategies as means of individual & collective rehabilitation; & articulating trauma as an aesthetic hermeneutic for critical understanding & counteracting the “negation of everyday life.” (Louis Armand)
The film
Existence is Resistance (2024) is an experimental documentary that delves into the role of culture as a form of resistance in Ukraine during the ongoing full-scale Russian invasion. Directed by Tyko Say and Sandra Pasławska, the film highlights how culture, activism, and collective expression have become vital in preserving the momentum to resist amidst the destruction of war.
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Filmed entirely in the historic city of Lviv, the documentary captures the stories of artists, curators, musicians, and activists who are using culture as a tool for resistance. From performance festivals to underground punk shows, Existence is Resistance explores the many ways that existence and resistance intertwine in times of crisis.
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Technical details:
VHS 38:32min B/W & colour
directed by Tyko Say & Sandra Pasławska
edited by Tyko Say
cinematography Tyko Say
produced by Louis Armand & David Vichnar
ft. Yaryna Shumska, Andrii Linik, Oxana Demych, Bogdana Brylynska, Katya Hrytseva, Eduard Robe, Igor Maklay, Khrystyna Kovalyshyn, Grigory Semenchuk, Peter Balog, Maryan Karpynskyi, Antonin Brinda, Andrija Gelitovic, Lenka Klodova and others.
The book
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The word “samizdat” appropriates the Soviet expression for “self-publishing,” used in the past to refer to the underground production of prohibited or regime-critical texts. Today, “samizdat” continues to be a form of resistance-by-existence: literally “self” publishing – assertions of “being” through private & public actions, zine-making, broadcasting, performance, graffiti & other ephemeral, site-specific means. In the face of war, genocide & other existential forms of oppression, the refusal to be “erased” may represent the ultimate act of resistance, in the awareness that NOTHING ELSE NEED BE EXPECTED OF IT. In this, it radicalises the old idea of aesthetic autonomy, the liberty of those who – even by a momentary act – do not vanish. (Louis Armand)
Documenting the war-time cultural resistance in Ukraine, this collaborative volume features...
Photography, video stills, texts & interviews by Louis Armand, Tyko Say, Sandra Pasławska, Lyana Mytsko, David Vichnar, Yaryna Shumska, Andrii Linik, Oxana Demych, Bogdana Brylynska, Katya Hrytseva, Eduard Robe, Sashko Naumenko, Igor Maklay, Khrystyna Kovalyshyn, Grigory Semenchuk, Fredric Molund.
Published 2024 by PMF Prague Microfestival / International Art Centre Prague.
Project event dates
26.10.24: Czech premiere and book launch @ The Prague Microfestival, Kampus Hybernská, 20:00/
In the face of war, genocide & other existential forms of oppression, the refusal to be “erased” may represent the ultimate act of resistance, in the awareness that NOTHING ELSE NEED BE EXPECTED OF IT. In this sense the cultural “front” is truly a grey zone, lending ethical impetus to a resistance that is no longer obliged to be FOR something; it is sufficient that it IS. As an act of survival, art in this context assumes a highly ephemeral yet also transcendental form, expressed by means that do not conform to pre-existing “aesthetics.” To be, to continue to be, to have been: refusing the non-being of individual & collective erasure. Our focus is thus the culture of resistance produced by the war in Ukraine & its consequences.
Specifically, acts of refusal of cultural erasure & acts of existential self-affirmation; ephemeral artefacts of individual & collective survival; the cultural “front” as radical ontology; & the emergence in everyday life of guerrilla art forms & critical-art actions (happenings, zines, squats, graffiti & other “archives” of the present).
Project activities include workshops, samizdat publishing, street art, art triage (trauma-therapy), pop-up exhibitions & critical encounters. Areas of focus include educational & cultural events designed to communicate the lived reality of resistance to the Kremlin’s “non-war” & to give objective representation to a hidden “ideology of the unrepresentable” & its human cost. This includes giving visibility to survivors & veterans; empowering them to represent their own experiences; deploying art strategies as means of individual & collective rehabilitation; & articulating trauma as an aesthetic hermeneutic for critical understanding & counteracting the “negation of everyday life.” (Louis Armand)
Under conditions of war, existence “is” resistance.
The film
"This documentary is about more than war; it’s about the people who persist and resist within it," says Tyko Say, co-director of Existence is Resistance. "The people we spoke to are not concerned about creating art, they’re concerned about not creating.” By capturing these stories through the same camera which could have documented the post-soviet signing of Ukraine’s constitution in 1996, we show how the past and present can intertwine, and how the very fact of existence is an act of resistance.”
Existence is Resistance (2024) is an experimental documentary that delves into the role of culture as a form of resistance in Ukraine during the ongoing full-scale Russian invasion. Directed by Tyko Say and Sandra Pasławska, the film highlights how culture, activism, and collective expression have become vital in preserving the momentum to resist amidst the destruction of war.
Filmed entirely in the historic city of Lviv, the documentary captures the stories of artists, curators, musicians, and activists who are using culture as a tool for resistance. From performance festivals to underground punk shows, Existence is Resistance explores the many ways that existence and resistance intertwine in times of crisis.
Synopsis
On June 28th 1996, Ukraine adopted its first post-Soviet Constitution. It was a moment of transition, of promise—a country stepping away from the shadow of the Soviet Union and toward a future shaped by its own hands. That same year, the Panasonic M-40 VHS camera was released, capturing the world as it was: raw, imperfect, and immediate. Thirty years later, that same camera returns to Ukraine, documenting a moment of crisis—this time, the threat to the very sovereignty that the constitution sought to protect.
Lviv unfolds in its frame, not as a war-torn city, but as a place of small, everyday rituals. In the mornings, we eat at Om Nom Nom, a vegan café tucked between narrow streets, before walking to Vynnykivskyi market where we buy buckets of babushka’s blackberries, still damp with morning dew. The hum of life carries on here, as it does anywhere—until it doesn’t. When the sirens rise, so does the static, the color draining from the streets, the familiar turning unfamiliar, a city cast in grayscale.
Through the lens of 1996, we document the streets of Lviv, interviewing artists, activists, and curators, their words captured with the grain and hiss of a VHS tape. Katya Hrytseva speaks of her hometown, Mariupol—the shelling. Of her art school in Kharkiv—the shelling. Now, she finds herself in Lviv, as air raids echo close in the distance . And at Radio Garage, Andrii Linik recalls songs from another war, now appropriated by the present, resonating the House of Sound with new urgency.
But this film is not just about documenting war; it is about documenting life within war—existence and resistance. The footage, imperfect and immediate, is not just a record of what is happening now, but a reflection of a city caught in the cycles of its own history—Lviv as it was in 1996, as it is in 2024.
In choosing VHS, we document not only the city but the passage of time itself. The same camera that might have captured Ukraine’s first steps toward independence now bears witness to its potential unraveling, a reminder that history is fragile, and so is culture. Lviv could be anywhere in Europe. But it isn’t. It is here, now. And the threat it faces is not just to its buildings or its people, but to the very idea of what it means to exist.
Technical details:
VHS 38:32min B/W & colour
directed by Tyko Say & Sandra Pasławska
edited by Tyko Say
cinematography Tyko Say
produced by Louis Armand & David Vichnar
ft. Yaryna Shumska, Andrii Linik, Oxana Demych, Bogdana Brylynska, Katya Hrytseva, Eduard Robe, Igor Maklay, Khrystyna Kovalyshyn, Grigory Semenchuk, Peter Balog, Maryan Karpynskyi, Antonin Brinda, Andrija Gelitovic, Lenka Klodova and others.
The book
The word “samizdat” appropriates the Soviet expression for “self-publishing,” used in the past to refer to the underground production of prohibited or regime-critical texts. Today, “samizdat” continues to be a form of resistance-by-existence: literally “self” publishing – assertions of “being” through private & public actions, zine-making, broadcasting, performance, graffiti & other ephemeral, site-specific means. In the face of war, genocide & other existential forms of oppression, the refusal to be “erased” may represent the ultimate act of resistance, in the awareness that NOTHING ELSE NEED BE EXPECTED OF IT. In this, it radicalises the old idea of aesthetic autonomy, the liberty of those who – even by a momentary act – do not vanish. (Louis Armand)
Documenting the war-time cultural resistance in Ukraine, this collaborative volume features...
Photography, video stills, texts & interviews by Louis Armand, Tyko Say, Sandra Pasławska, Lyana Mytsko, David Vichnar, Yaryna Shumska, Andrii Linik, Oxana Demych, Bogdana Brylynska, Katya Hrytseva, Eduard Robe, Sashko Naumenko, Igor Maklay, Khrystyna Kovalyshyn, Grigory Semenchuk, Fredric Molund.
Published 2024 by PMF Prague Microfestival / International Art Centre Prague.
Project event dates
26.10.24: Czech premiere and book launch @ The Prague Microfestival, Kampus Hybernská, 20:00/