Bajka
Presently in Ukraine, patriotic songs play an important role in fuelling a populist romantic nationalism. The magic of folksongs lies in their freedom from the restraints of artificial genres and thematic rules. Since 2014, artists Lucia Nimcova and Sholto Dobie have gathered an archive of photography, video and sound recordings throughout western Ukraine.
As opposed to traditional documentary practices they describe their work as a folk opera; a collection of songs, stories, music, performance and field recordings, existing somewhere between an ethnographic document and musical theatre.
In ‘BAJKA’, Nimcova and Dobie move freely between various locations and integrate themselves in kitchens, fields, roadsides, weddings, funerals and public events. These places become stages, in which everyday life and theatre paradoxically come together. Figures of various ages alternate before the camera, interior and exterior locations change, but the song goes on. Their main interests are those songs which describe in tragic, brutal and comic ways themes like domestic abuse, murder, conflict, sex, love and hate. Before it’s last inheritors disappear, the artists want to show that the alternative folklore of the region – a mix between hard mountain rap, vintage feminism and filthy Karpaty hip hop – is still alive and relevant.
