Defibrillator Gallery and SITE/less proudly present:

Sunflowers for Zvenigora*

an art fair and performance art series to benefit refugees from Ukraine

FRI 6 MAY – SUN 8 MAY | 2022

SITE/less : 1250 W Augusta Blvd | 60642

Performances : Roberto Sifuentes & Aram Han Sifuentes + Wannapa P-Eubanks + nunn + Gage Sixkiller + John Thomure + Nika Kostyuk + Maya Nguyen & Polina S.+ Pegah Pasalar

Vendors : Ashanti Owusu-Brafi + Frog and Hank + Kali Butterfly + Marz Brewing Company + Oh Well Press + Perfectly Acceptable + Pramuk Prints + Kiki’s Quilty Pleasures

COVID safety measures: Vaccination cards will be checked at the door + 40 people in the space at one given time + wear masks + hand sanitizer will be available at the door

* Zvenigora is a forgotten masterpiece of Soviet era film, not only serving as Alexander Dozhenko’s introduction to his Ukraine trilogy, but also as a thesis statement on the boundary pushing avant-garde cinema that Dovzhenko would create throughout his career as a director. A contemporary of Sergei Eisenstein, the famed director of Battleship Potemkin, Dovzhenko’s films took a more positive view of the world where common people persist and eventually succeed in the face of war, violence, and oppression. While there are no real heros in Dovzhenko’s films, we do see the heroics of everyday people: kindness, solidarity, and kinship. Zvenigora’s retelling of the history of Ukraine as a mythical fantasy epic establishes the country itself as the main character of the film. Ukraine has survived much in its storied past and the message at the end is that it can survive no matter what the circumstance. The benefit will conclude with a screening of Zvenigora at 8PM on Sunday, May 8th, with an original live score by Nika Kostyuk.

• FRI 06 MAY

8-11PM performances: Roberto Sifuentes + Wannapa P-Eubanks + nunn

• SAT 07 MAY 

1- 7PM :: ART FAIR

8-11PM performances :: Gage Sixkiller + John Thomure + Pegah Pasalar

• SUN 08 MAY 

1- 7PM :: ART FAIR + a durational performance by Maya Nguyen + Polina S.

8-9:30PM :: Zvenigora screening with an original live score by Nika Kostyuk.

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The Art Fair

On SAT 07 MAY + SUN 08 MAY from  1-7PM, vendors will be selling a variety of goods and donating a percentage of the proceeds to the two charities listed above. We will be accepting cash, Venmo, and Paypal. See more information about the vendors HERE.

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The Performances

Performances will take place FRI 06 + SAT 07 MAY at 8PM and during the fair on SUN 08 MAY with a different lineup each day. The performances are free but donations are encouraged with proceeds split between the two charities listed below. Learn more about the artists HERE.

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The Charities

• Longo-Mai Co-Op is a Pan-European anarchist farming collective who currently are working to evacuate people from Ukraine to live in the collective’s unique agricultural communities in Switzerland, Germany, and Poland. Their coop in Zakarpatia Oblast, Ukraine, is evacuating children from Vrubivka village in Luhansk Oblast. Longo-Mai has a history of helping Vrubivka village, even making a summer theater camp for them last year.  Although clearly on the anticapitalist left, Longo maï does not tow a party line, or subscribe to any rigid political viewpoint. Activities focus upon self-sufficiency, community life, craft, agriculture, the management of energy and water, and respect for the environment. Longo Maï has been involved with various international solidarity efforts with a particular focus on resistance against dictatorships.
• International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. In more than 40 countries and over 20 U.S. cities, their dedicated teams provide clean water, shelter, health care, education and empowerment support to refugees and displaced people.

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The Organizations

Sunflowers for Zvenigora was organized by dfb board members John Thomure + Gage Sixkiller + Michael Bridges + Joseph Ravens + Denissa Young along with SITE/less founders Michelle Kranicke + David Sundry.

SITE/less [siteless.org] is a guerilla storefront located at 1250 W Augusta Blvd, an edge site with ancillary relationships to a variety of urban crossroads and infrastructures. Overseen by Zephyr artistic director Michelle Kranicke and architect David Sundry, the space is positioned as an experimental architecture, movement, and research center. SITE/less seeks to rethink the relationship between the typical model of most performance venues and how the organization of those venues inevitably limits and conditions the curatorial practice. One focus of SITE/less is to develop a space that is, in itself, performative and to make use of an architectural approach that serves to stage a program of expressed activities while, at the same time, employing a structure that is open to unplanned social interactions and chance events. 

Defibrillator Gallery [DFBRL8R.org | founded 2010] is one of only a handful of organizations worldwide with a focus specifically on Performance Art. Recognizing a demand for spaces that adeptly present time and body-based visual art, founder and director Joseph Ravens created an international platform known for bold and courageous programming that aims to provoke thought and stimulate discourse surrounding experimental time-based practices. DFBRL8R is dedicated to cultivating emerging artists while broadening Chicago arts discourse through the presentation of professional contemporary artists of exceptional calibre from around the world. Actively contributing to global dialogues surrounding conceptual, ephemeral, or immaterial expressive forms, DFBRL8R exhibitions ask visitors and participants to reconsider what art is and what art may still become. Energetically building and bridging local and global communities while fostering discourse, DFBRL8R raises awareness, appreciation, and respect for the medium of performance art.

Zhou B Art Center [zhoubartcenter.com] is a private non-government funded complex that facilitates the exchange of contemporary art between Chicago and the international art community. Founded in 2004 by the Zhou Brothers in Chicago’s historic Bridgeport neighborhood, The Zhou B Art Center has a mission to engage in cultural dialogue through contemporary art exhibitions and international programming.