program have: YOUTUBE + SITE + INSTAGRAM
In August–September 2026, the new season of the Performance Program will take place—a two-month series of more than twenty performances, lectures, seminars, and discussions held across Kyiv and Lviv.
Launched last year, the programme now expands across two cities, creating a platform for exchange between the artistic communities of Kyiv and Lviv. The Lviv programme is co-organised by Jam Factory Art Center, while the Kyiv programme is produced by thesteinstudio in partnership with the Ukrainian-Danish Youth House. The project was initiated by artist Olga Stein, with Valeriia Buradzhyieva serving as the programme curator.
Over the course of two months, the programme will premiere new works by Ukrainian artists, including the collectives of Hannah Vinogradova and Nastya Dzyuban, Verkhovynets Archive, and Tanz Laboratorium + t. t. t. acting group. Their projects explore a wide range of themes, from rethinking the philosophies of Walter Benjamin and Les Kurbas, to seeking alternative representations of Ukrainian folk dance, and imagining a speculative cultural institution that merges the aesthetics of burlesque, club culture, and theatrical spectacle.
As part of the partnership with Jam Factory Art Center, two days of the Kyiv programme at thesteinstudio will be dedicated to the phenomenon of Lviv performance art. The programme will feature performances by Volodymyr Kaufman, Andrii Helitovych, Mykhailo Barabash, and Anastasiia Prozora, alongside a lecture by co-curator Yaryna Shumska, presenting her research on the history of performance art in Lviv.
While last year's edition focused exclusively on Ukrainian artists, this year's programme expands into an international format. International participants include Rachel Tess (USA/Sweden), who will present a choreographic work and speak about her experience curating Swedish–Ukrainian performance residencies; Ivana Müller (Croatia/France), who will present her performance in a delegated format and give an online lecture on the possibilities and limitations of participation; and Florian Malzacher (Germany), who will give a presentation followed by a Q&A on curatorial practices in performance.
Beyond presenting new works, the programme fosters critical dialogue between artists, curators, researchers, and audiences through public discussions and artist talks accompanying the performances in the public programme. As part of the educational strand, programme curator Valeriia Buradzhyieva will lead introductory seminars in Performance Studies for teenagers in both Kyiv and Lviv.
The programme is intended both for cultural practitioners and researchers working with performance, and for broader audiences interested in contemporary art. Detailed information about each event will be available in its individual announcement.
In May 2025, thesteinstudio hosted its first performance program, curated by Valeriia Buradzhyieva.
The program included nine performances representing a wide range of performative practices — from body-oriented performances (Stanislav Turina, Natalia Lisova, Rita Lira, Danylo Zubkov, Anna Shevchenko) to hybrid formats such as extended cinema (Max Svitlo and Salt Salome), relational art (Variable Name), and theatrical reading (Valeria Shiller and Zhenya Stepanenko). The performances were accompanied by an educational program, including a lecture by Larisa Venediktova on how to watch performance, a workshop by Yaryna Shumska on how to create one, and a public podcast recording with theatre director Illia Razumeiko.
This marked thesteinstudio’s first comprehensive attempt to explore how a space primarily dedicated to visual art can become a medium for performative practices. The relationship between performer and viewer took on different forms, with boundaries blurring not only formally but also contextually — raising the question of what kind of space performance inhabits. Here, the performative unfolded at the intersection of institutional openness and the intimacy of a studio hidden in a residential courtyard, which at times also became a stage. The program examined how both the studio and its surrounding environment shift under the influence of the performative gesture, and how the gesture itself becomes embedded in the architecture, atmosphere, and social contexts of the place.
The project was implemented with the support of the Ukrainian-Danish Youth House.