Uliana Bychenkova
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(*1986 Kerch, Ukraine)
Uliana Bychenkova is an interdisciplinary artist & designer, composer & performer, curator & researcher from Kyiv, Ukraine (currently based in Weimar, Germany).
With a background in noise performance, Uliana studied at the school of Ukrainian composer Katarina Gryvul, where timbre and form were paid the most strong attention. Focusing on the intermedial dimensions of electroacoustics and employing feminist optics, in 2024 she graduated from SeaM (Studio for Electroacoustic Music in Bauhaus University Weimar, M.F.A.), with an electroacoustic score for the short film-performance “Scales”directed by Anna Scherbyna (e-flux Film Award 2024).
Uliana is interested in exploring a variety of acoustic and electronic sound objects, overcoming their hierarchies, but is particularly fascinated by the voice as a tool in self-discovery as a composer and performer. Her current interest lies in the intersection between Graphic Design and New Music in both directions: experimental forms of compositional notation as well as new graphical languages in Visual Communication in/for the New Music field. Studying these two sources of practice, she is aiming to explore Type Design’s potential as an interface for Timbral Vocal Notation.
As a graphic designer, she mainly works with editorial and visual identity cultural projects. Her design approach is characterised by special attention to the typographical expression. In the design research area she explores the historical genesis and affective potential of form and also practice of visual composition from a feminist perspective.
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Education
Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts, Kharkiv, Ukraine (B.A. 2009; Diploma 2011); High Academic School of Graphic Design, Visual Communication (2014); Rodchenko Art School of Photography and Multimedia, Media Art (2015); European Humanities University Summer School, Artistic Research, Vilnius (2014); Feminist Writing Workshop, Lviv (2020); Gryvul School, Music production (2022) / Katharina Gryvul; Concordia University, Electroacoustic Studies, Montréal, Canada (2023) / prof. Kevin Austin; SeaM—Studio for Electroacoustic Music, Electroacoustic Composition & Sound Design, Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany (M.F.A. 2024) / prof. Maximilian Marcoll.
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Curatorial projects
Exhibition “Coordinate system. Exhibition, discussion, experiment”, YermilovCentre, Kharkiv, 2013 (with Alina Kleitman); Design research exhibition project “ZNAK. Ukrainian trademarks of the 1960s–1980s”, Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, 2017 (as part of the U, N, A collective); International feminist art project “Cave of the Golden Rose”, Closer Art Center, Kyiv, 2019 (with Anna Scherbyna, Zhanna Dolgova, and Valentina Petrova), “Vystavka-Chytanka” (Exhibition-Reading), Artspace Kryla, Kyiv, 2020 (with Anna Scherbyna); “How Do We Turn Salt Into Sugar?”, Museum Reinickendorf, Berlin, 2023 (with Anna Scherbyna); Festival “Sonopticum—Sunday of Sonic Arts” HfM Franz Liszt, Weimar, 2024 (with Jasper Seibert); Concert “THINGS that COULD happen”, HfM Franz Liszt, Weimar, 2025 (with Jasper Seibert).
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Collaboration projects
Medusa Publishing House (Kyiv), IST Publishing (Kharkiv), Kyiv Biennial (Kyiv), Visual Culture Research Center (Kyiv), Ukrainian Institute (Kyiv), Museum of Kharkiv School of Photography (Kharkiv), Mystetskyi Arsenal (Kyiv), Technische Universität Dresden (Dresden), Universität Potsdam (Potsdam), Europa-Universität Viadrina (Frankfurt-on-Oder), Freie Universität (Berlin), Bauhaus-Universität (Weimar), Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Berlin), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde e.V. (Berlin), Lithuanian Photographers Union (Klaipeda), Konstepidemin (Göteborg), The Union (Oslo), Cicada Press (New York), Media activist collective “Kafe-Morozhenoe” (Vienna).
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Residencies, scholarships, awards
Grand Prix of the competition “Best Book Design”, project “Znak. Ukrainian Trademarks of the 1960–1980s” (U,N,A collective), Book Arsenal, Kyiv, 2020; “Dreams of Sisterhood”, Feminist Research Residence, LIA, Spinnerei, Leipzig, 2021; Akademie Schloss Solitude, Art Residence, Stuttgart, 2022; Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (Scholarship) 2023–2024; Künstlerhof Frohnau, Art Residence, Berlin, 2022; Donumenta, Artistic Research Residence, Regensburg, 2022; e-flux Film Award, “Scales”, directed by Anna Scherbyna, New York, 2024.
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Publications
“Znak. Ukrainian Trademarks of the 1960–1980s”, IST Publishing, Kharkiv, 2018; “Clara, Josephine, Fraktur*a, Futur*a”, Creating Ruin, Kyiv, 2021; “Silence féminin”, Block Magazine, Warsaw, 2022; “Perlamutter”, Künstlerhof Frohnau, Berlin, 2023; “ZNAK. Les logotypes en Ukraine de 1910 à 2019. Des archives réactivées.“, Problemata, Paris, 2022; “Value Resembles a Dance Not a Statue. Sergei Eisenstein’s Capital Project”, in “Film Undone. Elements of a Latent Cinema”, Archive Books Berlin, 2023; “Who Sailes Between The Scales? (Mermaid Lullabies Manifesto)”, Bauhaus-Uni, Weimar, 2024.
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Group projects
Girls noise band “Pripoy!” (2013–2017); the collective of precarious lifehackers “Flying Cooperation” (2015–2017); Feminist art duo “Welcome To The Doll House!” (with Zhanna Dolgova, 2016–2021); Design research trio “U,N,A collective” (with Nika Kudinova and Aliona Solomadina, since 2017).
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Selected group exhibition & concert events
Exhibition “Newspeak”, curator Mykola Ridnyi, Small Gallery of Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, 2011; “Habitat”, Bottega Gallery, Kyiv, 2011; Festival of Young Art “Non Stop Media”, YermilovCentre, Kharkiv, 2012 (first prize); “Ukrainian News”, The Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, 2013; “The Right to Be Forgotten”, curator Maria Kotlyachkova, C-ROOM, Stockholm University, Frescati Campus, Stockholm, 2014; “Feminist (Art) Criticism”, TSEKH space, Minsk, 2014; “Armed and Dangerous”, IZOLYATSIA. Platform for Cultural Initiatives, Kyiv, 2019; Week of events “Work Hard! Play Hard!”, Minsk, 2016–2020; Live on the radio “Variable cloudnes”, Cashmere Radio, Berlin, 2024; Concert “Fluesterzimmer N6”, Notenbank, Weimar, 2024; Festival “Sonopticum—Sunday of Sonic Arts” HfM Franz Liszt, Weimar, 2024; Concert “THINGS that COULD happen”, HfM Franz Liszt, Weimar, 2025.
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Educational projects & public talks
Seminar “INTERMEDIATION”, Bauhaus University Weimar / Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar, Germany, SoSe 2024; “Feminist Self-Publishing. How do we overcome the patriarchal dichotomy of Content and Form?”, 29. Leipziger Typotage, Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig, Germany, 2024; “U,N,A collective”, The Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, USA, 2024 (as a part of U,N,A collective); “Feminist Musicologie Reading Group”, Bauhaus University Weimar / Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar, Germany, 2022–2023; “The Workshop of Caring & Passionate Construction”, European Humanities University, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2021; Educational Project “Chytanka” (Reading), Artspace Kryla, Kyiv, Ukraine, 2020–2021 (with Anna Scherbyna).
