The Dreaming 90’s residency took place at six art institutions: Komuna Warszawa (Warsaw), Workshop Foundation (Budapest), Jam Factory Art Centre (Lviv), Studio Alta (Prague), Bunker (Ljubljana), and HELLERAU (Dresden). As part of the residency, artists from Eastern European countries were invited to explore the mood of awakening and freedom in Central and Eastern Europe after the upheavals of 1989. Participants consider how the social movements of the 1990s replaced ossified socialist societies and were dynamic in both their positive and negative manifestations, and ask the question: which social, artistic and cultural phenomena of today have their roots in the 1990s? What positive changes took place during this period and what opportunities were missed?
The first part of the residency took place at each of the partner institutions, and in November 2025, all residents spent three weeks at HELLERAU in Dresden, where they were mentored by the theatermakers and performers Ira Brand & Gosia Wdowik.
In the frame of HELLERAU’s festival “Transformation forever”, the artists shared short insights into their research’s during the cultural forum.
With research projects by:
Bence György Pálinkás & Tímea Török (Hungary), Karol Filo (Slovakia/Czech Republic), Mariia Bakalo & Maria Kardash (Ukraine/Austria), Stanisław Bulder (Poland), Toni Soprano Meneglejte (Slovenia).
Ukrainian participants of the residency:
Maria Bakalo – choreographer, contemporary dance teacher, dancer, lives in Lviv, works in Ukraine and abroad.
Maria Kardash – dance anthropologist, performer, multidisciplinary artist, originally from Izmail, currently living in Austria.
During the residency, the artists explored the everyday rituals and physical and movement tendencies of Ukrainians, based on family chronicles and underground culture, particularly the subcultures of goths and cosplayers.