On 18 September at 7:00 PM, Jam Factory Art Center will host a performative reading of the erotic novel Cancelled Love, performed by Zhenia Stepanenko and Valeriia Shiller.
There were three of them…
The first was considered a genius. A prophet. A legend of contemporary art… He did not paint—he seduced canvases, arousing them with the touch of his brush… He triumphed at biennials like Prometheus in the Trojan War. His works brought critics to orgasm and his enemies to tears of envy…
The second was a masterful lover, a noble prince from a powerful art clan. He could rival any self-made artist in intelligence, knowledge, and intellect, while his most formidable weapon was his beauty…
And although the third was no great beauty, he fought tirelessly for the rights of every lover in his harem. In royal chambers and in tents at land art festivals, they loved one another in defiance of a world that refused to recognize their right to love freely…
Will the lovers survive the hardships of artistic residencies and the treachery of behind-the-scenes intrigues? Will their passion endure all the trials imposed by a perfidious fate? And can an artist remain an artist when their body says “yes” while their mind begs “no”?… Join us as we plunge into a world of erotic stories that no one dreams of finding themselves in…
The members of the authorial duo, Zhenia Stepanenko (1996, Kyiv) and Valeriia Shiller (1994, Sevastopol), have been fascinated by forbidden literature since childhood… At their school desks, during breaks between classroom duties, in after-school care, at saxophone lessons, and between wushu training and beadwork classes, they secretly read their grandmothers’ romance novels. Their insatiable desire to uncover the mysteries of adult pleasure illuminated the path towards their true calling. Zhenia and Valeriia abandoned their artistic and curatorial careers and finally devoted themselves to writing an erotic novella about the contemporary art world.
The reading will be held in English.
Producer: Valeriia Burazhyieva
Admission is free with prior registration.
The performance is presented as part of the thesteinstudio x Jam Factory Art Center Performative Programme 2026.
The project is a recipient of the Per Forma grant programme, implemented by Kyiv Contemporary Music Days with the support of the Performing Arts Fund NL and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands to foster the development of the performing arts sector in Ukraine.