Mykyta Lyskov
Perhaps the most prominent and radical figure in Ukrainian animation, Lyskov (b. 1983) crafts a surreal portrait of his home city Dnipro. Documenting how the people of the riverine metropolis weathered post-USSR storms of social upheaval, this colourful exercise in urban surrealism is a non-verbal phantasmagoria in which entities absurdly and oneirically intermingle. Essentially empathetic and humane, it explores the idea of “Kohannia”—defined by Lyskov as “a feeling that arises in the soul and has a connection with the transcendental and divine… which I do not see around me nowadays.” (N.Y.)