A BARCELONA ARTISTS AT RISK PROJECT AT THE CCCB
‘Ma mare i la invasió total’ (‘My Mother and the Total Invasion’), the first fruit of the Barcelona Artists at Risk project
On Saturday, 4 March, the monologue Ma mare i la invasion total, a play written and directed by Saixa Deníssova and performed by Alekseu Iúdnikov, will premiere at the Barcelona Centre for Contemporary Culture (CCCB) theatre. Both are Ukrainians exiled in our country, and they have been able to create this work thanks to the Barcelona Artists at Risk project. Since last October, they have been rehearsing this work while in residence at the Fabra i Coats: Creation Factory.
The protagonist of the monologue is Olga Ivanovna, the author's mother, born in Kyiv while the Germans were bombing the city during the Second World War. Now, despite the invasion, she has decided to stay on in the Ukrainian capital. It is a life caught between two wars, bridged by the stories of love and intimacy between a mother and daughter who are separated by this new conflict. A story that is not short of irony, with Olga Ivanovna holding conversations with Chiefs of Staff, ex-husbands, and also with her daughter.
Denissova and Yudnikov were in Moscow rehearsing when war broke out. As a result of their political position, they were forced to leave. The showing on 4 March will be in Russian with Catalan subtitles, and will start at 7:30 p.m. Tickets, priced at €7, can be purchased in advance.
What is Barcelona Artists at Risk?
Alekseu Iúdnikov and Saixa Deníssova are the first residents with Barcelona Artists at Risk. This joint project between various institutions and entities welcomes artists in situations of risk under the umbrella of an artistic residency in the Catalan capital.
The purpose of these residencies is to give artists a safe space, not only to protect their lives, but also to provide them with the opportunity to continue their artistic activity and speak out outside their territory. The participating institutions and entities are the Barcelona Institute of Culture (ICUB), which facilitates project execution and the residency of the artists at Fabra i Coats: Creation Factory; the CCCB, which helps with artist maintenance and technical production; the Artist at Risk platform and No Callarem, which welcomes artists in situations of risk, and which is supported by the Artists at Risk (AR) project – A European Network of Safe Havens, a Creative Europe network project, funded by the European Union.
