Yulia Krivich, Marta Romankiv, Weronika Zalewska - Vilnius Biennial of Performance Art

Crisis Kiosk is an artistic intervention exploring survival systems, collective nourishment, and solidarity amid precarious interdependence. Set in Vilnius’ public space at a food stand, the performance highlights the vulnerability of small shopkeepers and emphasises the importance of grassroots solidarity. As a result of the Russian invasion, Ukraine today faces an energy crisis and food scarcity. The performance examines the nation’s role as the world’s ‘breadbasket’ and the consequences of the conflict on global food security. Combining food with recipes for daily activism, Crisis Kiosk showcases the power of food as a tool for memory, labour, release, and the struggle for peace and justice. The project stands in solidarity with those affected by the invasion and aims to share information on surviving crises. In collaboration with Ukrainian inhabitants of Vilnius, the artists will recreate Ukrainian recipes, reflecting communal shelling of sunflower seeds and the strength of a diverse community. The performance also serves as an opportunity to discuss creating spaces for commons and the potential of public institutions to support social actions, as they too may need recipes for survival.

Weronika Zalewska (b. 1994 in Ostrów Wielkopolski, Poland) is a transmedia artist, poet, and Dutch Art Institute student based in Warsaw. She holds a master’s degree from the Media Art Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and a bachelor’s degree from the Multimedia Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium. Zalewska explores experimental languages that deepen the understanding of interpersonal and interspecies entanglements. She expresses her art through text, sound, video, and collaborative action, often focusing on (interspecies) bodies, their inner experiences, and outer gazes. Zalewska’s debut collection of poetry is set to be published in August this year, and her works have been displayed in institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Galeria Arsenał in Białystok, Galeria Promocyjna in Warsaw, BWA Dizajn in Wrocław, Zachęta National Gallery in Warsaw, and PATHOS in Munich. She is also a co-curator of the HER Docs Film Festival video art section and the performance programme The Discomfort of Evening at the Zachęta National Art Gallery. Additionally, Zalewska is a co-author of the Poskończoności podcast, which discusses posthumanist, feminist, and decolonial perspectives for everyday life.

Yulia Krivich (b. 1988, Dnipro, Ukraine) is a Warsaw-based visual artist, activist, curator, and co-organiser of the Solidarity Community Center Słonecznik (Sunflower) at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. She is also a member of the Soniakh Digest team (against war, empire, and westsplaining). Krivich graduated from the Department of Architecture at the State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture in Dnipro in 2010 and the Faculty of Media Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 2013. She has received numerous accolades, including the Gaude Polonia Scholarship Program (2016), Pla(t)form at Fotomuseum Winterthur (2018), Pinchuk Art Center Prize nomination (2018), Warsaw City Scholarship Program (2021), and a nomination for Paszport Polityki (2022). Krivich’s work explores identity issues, blending elements of activism and collective practices while examining her position as a migrant. Her recent accomplishments include participation in Documenta 15 in Kassel (2022), WHW Akademija in Zagreb (2021), Future Photography Platform nomination, Osaka Kansai International Festival in Japan, and a guest curator role at Plato Ostrava Gallery (2023).

Marta Romankiv (born 1995 in Lviv, Ukraine) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Poland, known for her art installations, video works, and socially-engaged projects. She completed her master’s at the Academy of Arts in Szczecin and is currently a doctoral student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk. Romankiv has received international accolades, such as the Allegro Prize (2020), the Gaude Polonia Scholarship (2021), and the Krakow Artist Scholarship (2022), and has participated in exhibitions and conferences across the globe. Romankiv’s participatory works primarily focus on civil and labor rights, social exclusion in the context of migration, and related identity issues. In 2021, she played a crucial role in supporting the establishment of Poland’s first trade union for domestic workers, led by migrant women from Ukraine.

Performance sponsor