REVOLUTION17
CAFÉS - 2015
Vysotsky
2nd December 2015 | Rich Mix, London
An evening celebrating the life and work of Russian poet, actor and singer-songwriter Vladimir Vysotsky. We had live music from Igor Outkine, films from Obskura, conversation with Vysotsky experts Alex Kan and Polly McMichael and a headline set from Sasha Ilyukevich and the Highly Skilled Migrants. With over 250 people in the audience this was a night to remember.
The Tatars of Crimea
4 November 2015 | Rich Mix, London
Presented in collaboration with the British Ukrainian Society, we screened Haytarma, a film that tells the story of Crimean Tatar test pilot and hero of the Soviet Union Amet-khan Sultan who witnesses the 1944 deportation of the Crimean Tatars. The film was followed by a moving and thought provoking discussion about the film and the current plight of the Tatars with Dash co-Artistic director Josephine Burton, Lily Hyde and Melek Maksudoglu.
Dash Arts and the British Ukrainian Society would like to thank the director of Haytarma, Akhtem Seitablaev, for his permission to screen the film.
Georgia on Film
7 October 2015 | Rich Mix, London
As part of the Life Through Cinema 4th London Georgian Film Festival, celebrated Georgian film directors Tinatin Kajrashvili (Brides) and Zaza Urashadze (Tangerines) joined Josephine Burton to discuss making films in Georgia. Before the discussion we screened Ferris Wheel, a new film by Uta Beria and heard beautiful Georgian music by Tamta Turmandize and friends.
Find out more about the Film Festival at www.lifethroughcinema.com.
Like Mama Used to Make It
2 September 2015 | Rich Mix, London
We welcomed Ukrainian chef Olia Hercules and Food Anthropologist Katrina Kollegaeva to the kitchen table to share their favourite family recipes and, along with artist Yuldosh Juraboev and Dash Arts Artistic Director Josephine Burton, we shared stories and discussed how family recipes have evolved since the fall of the Soviet Union.
With cooking demonstrations from Olia and Katrina and some rousing and nostalgic tunes from DJ Sasha, this cafe transported us with smells and sounds to a very different time and place.
Anton Maskeliade - Electro Magic and Musical Wizadry
1 July 2015 | Rich Mix, London
This Dash Cafe welcomed Russian musician and producer, Anton Maskeliade. Fresh from his set at Glastonbury, Anton chatted about his innovative approach to audio-visual music-making and performed his captivating live set. Highly talented musical genius and creative geek, Anton Maskeliade is one of the first artists in the world to create live electronica with gesture control technology leap motion. Anton has developed a unique technique by using his body, movements and gestures to stimulate different devices to create intoxicating music and eye-popping visuals. These audio and video effects synchronize into new stunning soundscapes as he experiments and samples genres from electronica to contemporary pop.
Poles in the USSR with Katy Carr
3 June 2015 | Rich Mix, London
We explored Polish culture and the Soviet Union with renowned folk musician Katy Carr. Aided by some fantastic speakers and experts including author of 'Two Years in a Gulag,' Frank Pleszak, Academic and author ' Finding Poland: from Tavistock to Hruzdowa and back again' Dr Matthew Kelly and Danuta Gradosielska – Siberia survivor and veteran and hosted by Dash Arts Artistic Director Josephine Burton, Katy Carr took us on a journey through the Siberian Gulag, forced relocation, Poland’s role within World War II into contemporary Polish relations with Russia, illustrated and intercut by her own beautiful live performance.
Family Affair
6 May 2015 | Rich Mix, London
Dash Arts and the City of London Sinfonia presented an evening of live music and conversation as, we discussed the complex legacy of growing up in an artistic family.
Composer Russian-American viola-player Ljova, son of rock opera composer Alexander Zhurbin, Gabriel Prokofiev composer and grandson of Sergei Prokofiev and Elena Langer shared their experiences and fascinating insights. Throughour the conversation we were treated to live performances of their workby musicians from the CLS and guest soprano Anna Dennis.
Presented with the City of London Sinfonia
The Spirit of Tsoi
1 April 2015 | Rich Mix, London
Legendary rock singer Viktor Tsoi was a Soviet musician, film actor, songwriter and leader of the 80’s rock group Kino. Despite his untimely death, his spirit lives on in his music which remains hugely popular.
With Obskura Soviet Cinema Club we present Tsoi’s last film The Needle and with a pre film discussion featuring Alexander Titov, bassist from Kino and cultural historian Alexander Kan, we will explore Tsoi’s work and the influence his music still has.
The Needle (1989, Rashid Nugmanov) tells a fragmented and eclectic story of the hero nicknamed Moro (Viktor Tsoi), who comes to his hometown Alma-Ata to collect an old debt, and finds out that his ex-girlfriend Dina (Maria Smirnova) is on drugs. The title and the synopsis of the film falsely suggest a drama about drug abuse, however, the film is more sophisticated. Instead it presents the viewer with an aesthetically stylized world, achieved through spectacular cinematography, mis-en-scène, and the last performance of Viktor Tsoi. The Needle is accompanied by Tsoi’s music which is so integral to the film’s narrative that it almost becomes a character on its own.
Presented with Obskura Cinema Club
Armenia
4 March 2015 | Rich Mix, London
We fêted the survival and flourishing of Armenian culture with film, music and dance with Armenian Institute.
2015 marks the Centenary of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Turkish Government. This Dash Cafe explored the legacy of the Genocide and the diverse influences within Armenian culture. With a Parajanov film, songs inspired by Komitas, music, dance, Armenian refreshments and tasty morsels, this was the perfect introduction to this fascinating culture.
Film
Writer Nouritza Matossian introduced her prize-winning short film Hrant Dink, Heart of Two Nations, 14mins. Dink, a brave champion of free speech and human rights in Turkey, editor of a weekly paper was murdered in 2007 but galvanized a growing liberal youth movement acknowledging the Genocide and demanding freedom of press.
Sergei Parajanov, Armenian film director born in Georgia made a short film on fellow Tblisi Armenian portraitist Hakob Hovnatanyan (1806-1881) as a study rich in imagery for his famous Colour of Pomegranates. Parajanov was repeatedly jailed by Soviet authorities on trumped up charges, prevented from making films and finally he retired to Yerevan where his house is now a museum for his works of art.
Music
The Oxford Armenian Choir was formed in 2013 by amateur musicians enthused by the sacred and folk music of Armenia. The choir's repertoire this evening will focus on composer Komitas(1869-1935) who travelled through the country collecting over 400 songs and arranged them in western notation. Praised by Debussy, his music was famous in Paris and Istanbul. Komidas was arrested on 24 April 1915 along with Armenian notable intellectuals, most of whom were tortured and killed at the start of the Genocide campaign. He was rescued by foreign intervention but lost his mind and lived in an asylum in France for the rest of his life unable to compose.
Dance
Dalila Heath and Laurence Agopian-Djololian, two expert practitioners of Armenian Folk Dancing performed dances from the regions of Erzeroum and Zangezour.
Presented by Dash Arts and the Armenian Institute
Nothing is True and Everything is Possible
Dash Arts Launches Peter Pomerantsev's new book
4 February 2015 | Rich Mix London
We launched Peter Pomerantsev’s new book Nothing is True and Everything is Possible with guest, Journalist Nick Cohen and music from Sasha Ilyukevich and the Highly Skilled migrants.
At the end of the 20th century, Russia was only just emerging from the failure of the Soviet Union. And yet now, only a few decades later, there is the new Russia. Home to the new jet set: the richest, the most energetic, the most beautiful and the most dangerous.
In Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, Peter Pomerantsev takes the reader deep into the heart of modern Russia, a world transformed by money and power; from the ‘Gold-digger’ academies teaching women how to marry a millionaire, into the lives of Hells Angels, convinced they are messiahs, and the gangsters turned filmmakers. In this new world, home to a new form of authoritarianism under Putin, all values are changeable and everything is moving so fast it breaks all sense of reality. Peter Pomerantsev takes us on a wild ride into this political and ethical vacuum.
We hosted a conversation with Peter, Dash Arts Artistic Director Josephine Burton and Observer Journalist Nick Cohen followed by a raucous live set from London-based troubadour Sasha Ilyukevich and his British band ‘The Highly Skilled Migrants’ who created an incomparable brew of post punk energy and folk lyricism – the perfect music to complement this ‘electrifying and terrifying’ book.
HERITAGE - Visual Art & Live Performance for Georgia
7 January 2015 | Rich Mix, London
We were proud to partner with cARTveli to host the opening night for Heritage, contemporary art from Georgia. The evening included an opportunity to tour the exhibition and sample delicious Georgian wines, watch live performance from some of the featured artists, a discussion with the curator, Levan Mindiashvilli and some of the artists and the beautiful music of Paris-based Théko.
HERITAGE presented a collaboration between Georgian artists Levan Mindiashvili, Tato Akhalkatsishvili, Uta Bekaia, Irakli Bugiani and Argentinian Cristian Tonhaiser. Longtime collaborators, the artists embarked on an investigation into historical, social and cultural constructions and how these make up integral parts of the biological, mental and physical heritage of an individual.
The evening ended with a set by Paris-based singer and multi-instrumentalist THéKO who transported us to an intimate poetic landscape, shaped with tales and notes of her own human tragedies and quixotic moments, with ukulele, djembe and guitar adornments. Check out THéKO's soundcloud here.