Andriy Helytovych

Graduated from Lviv College of Decorative and Applied Arts and the Lviv National Academy of Arts where he studied painting. He has been performing since 2015. In 2017, he was an intern at the Labirynt Gallery (Lublin, Poland) as part of the Gaude Polonia scholarship programme. He has participated in a number of performance festivals both in Ukraine and abroad. Co-founder of the performance project Zabih (2017). Teaches in Lviv Art School (from 2020). Lives and works in Lviv.

The artist’s performances are not always homogeneous in character and form. It is important for Andriy to work in a live performance setting, use the tension of the moment, accept mistakes, and avoid predetermined ending. The basis for his performances is often a meaningless associative form that, starting from the circumstances of the place and changing during the performance, reveals the hidden cognitive, communicative, and therapeutic potential of a unique situation.

The artist usually uses an intuitive visual form rather than narrative ideas – as a way to embody unconsciousness. In his performance he reflects on the war in Ukraine, but also searches for universal topics. Two panels – two walls he uses can be interpreted in different ways: as a building, home, shelter, armor, fortification, border. It will be necessary to balance their weight, sometimes put them together as a card house or move – like houses, floating after Kakhovka dam being blown up by Russians. Their role as a tool for a human being will be clear. They can be destroyed but also rebuilt, moved, returned. They can become a grave. Two walls as two columns allowed Samson to show his inhuman power and will. With their bare hands people confronted tanks – resisted a shaft of fire at the front line.