Ihor Podolchak

Ihor Podolchak (, Ihor Podolczak; born April 9, 1962) is a Ukrainian filmmaker and visual artist. He is a co-founder of the creative association Masoch Fund, and a participant in the Ukrainian New Wave.

Ihor Podolchak was named as one of the 10 most prominent Ukrainian filmmakers by Forbes Ukraine in 2014, and is a member of the Ukrainian Film Academy.

Biography
Podolchak was born in Lviv, Ukrainian SSR, USSR (now Ukraine). He graduated from Lviv Academy of Fine Arts (then Lviv State Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts) with distinction in 1984. From 1984 to 1985 he served in the Soviet Border Troops on the Soviet-Polish border.

From 1985 to 1986 he worked in the Art Fund of the Union of Artists of Ukraine. Since 1986, he has been a free artist and curator of contemporary art. He has also been a participant and laureate of numerous international exhibitions, organized and held in various international exhibitions across Ukraine, Russia, the US, and Norway.After completing his military service, he founded Production Center ltd, a company engaged in film production, creating series projects for Ukrainian and Russian TV channels.

After establishing the Masoch Fund, together with Igor Durich, he actively conducted various artistic projects in Ukraine, Russia, and in Germany. Since 1997, he has been engaged in the integrated design of the visual-image components of political election campaigns in both Ukraine and Russia. Since 2006, he has written, scripted, shot, and produced movies such as:
 * Las Meninas – 2008, full length, Ukraine
 * Delirium – 2013, full length, Ukraine, Czech Republic
 * Merry-Go-Round – 2017, short length, Ukraine, Poland

Visual arts
Podolchak works in different genres of fine art – painting, prints, photography, video art and art actions. At the beginning of his career, the graphics prevailed, and from the mid-1990s makes art actions and performances, from the late 1990s video art.

In the center of Podolchak's creativity, is a human body in its various manifestations, relationships with other bodies, as well as in different stages of decomposition. In the artistic development of the theme of decomposition and decay there are only two types of matter, two definite formations of "flesh" – human and architectural. They are the receptacles of all sorts of energies, the connections of various semiotic codes – the most clearly demonstrated manifestations of regressive forces. The propensity to the metamorphoses of decomposition reveals and, in a special way, mythologizes the "corporeality" of these two organisms, and the inconstancy of the point of view on their relations in this state (fluctuations from allegory to thriller), constantly improves the iconography of Podolchak's aesthetics in general.

The artist's book Jacob Bohme was awarded as World's Best Book (Bronze Medal) by Stiftung Buchkunst Frankfurt am Main at Frankfurt Book Fair. One of his 24 personal exhibitions was the first art exhibition ever to be held in space, at space station Mir on January 25, 1993. Artworks of Podolchak can be found in 26 museums and public collections worldwide.

Cinema


Both Podolchak's films have common characteristic features: departure from narrative, anthropology of enclosed worlds, elaborated composition of frame, unusual shooting angles. The spaces of Las Meninas and Delirium are similarly dense, difficult for movement, tiresome both for the characters moving within them and the viewers watching them. This reflects the time of "the end of history" with its somnambulism, impotence, morbidity and hopelessness.

Las Meninas
Las Meninas is Podolchak's debut full-length film. He wrote, directed and produced it. The film had a world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in the competition program on January 25, 2008. Overall, it has participated in 27 international film festivals, including 10 competition programs.

Delirium
Delirium is Podolchak's second full-length feature. Its script is based on the story Inductor by the Ukrainian writer and journalist Dmytro Belyanskyi. The film's production lasted during 2008–2010. For the first time fragments of the film were demonstrated in 2012 on the 45th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the program ''Films in production. New full-length films from Central and Eastern Europe''. After the prerelease screenings, Ukrainian film critics compared the second film of Podolchak to the works of Alain Robbe-Grillet, Pedro Costa and Nikos Nikolaidis.

Position 5 in Top-10 Ukrainian films of 2012 by "Афіша@Mail.Ru".

Merry-Go-Round
The first short length film (2017. Ukraine, Poland. 5 min). It was premiered at Revelation Perth International Film Festival on July 9, 2017 and was nominated for the Best Ukrainian Short Film at Odesa International Film Festival.

Selected prizes and nominations
Prizes:
 * 2013 "First Prize", Baghdad International Film Festival, Iraq
 * 1995 "Triennaleprize", 11th Norway International Print Triennial, Fredrikstad
 * 1994 "Walter Tiemann Preis", Verein zur Förderung von Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig e.V. an der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig
 * 1990 "Latvian Artist Union Prize", Triennial of miniature graphic art, Riga
 * 1990 "1st Award for graphics", 5th Annual International Art Exhibition, Marietta, USA
 * 1989 "Diploma", International Biennial of Art Impreza, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
 * 1988 "Prix Ex Aequo", 12th International Print Biennial, Kraków
 * 1987 "Honorable Medal", Small Graphic Forms, Łódź

Nominations:
 * 2017 "Best Ukrainian short film", Odesa International Film Festival
 * 2013 "National Prize", Odesa International Film Festival
 * 2013 "Best Director" Director's Week Competition, Fantasporto, Oporto International Film Festival, Porto
 * 2009 "Prize", Trieste Film Festival
 * 2008 "Tiger", 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam
 * 2008 "Prize FIPRESCI", 7th Transilvania International Film Festival, Cluj-Napoca
 * 2008 "Prize", 16th Artfilm International Film Festival, Slovakia