HYBRID MEMORIES OFF SCRIPT
Izolyatsia Gallery, Ukraine, Kyiv. A disability centered performance based on ecologies of fermentation, disabilities and former sign language interpreter Nataliya Dmytruk’s November 24, 2004 sign language protest on the Ukrainian State television’s news.
Former sign language interpreter Nataliya Dmytruk went off script to protest the 2004 election while she was supposed to be interpreting the false election results on Ukraine State television news. She refused to translate the official script that announced Viktor Yanukovych as the winner of the presidential election. Deviating from the official script that the newscaster followed and spoke out loud, Dmytruk instead signed to viewers, "I am addressing everybody who is deaf in Ukraine. Our president is Viktor Yushchenko. Do not trust the results of the central election committee. They are all lies.... And I am very ashamed to translate such lies to you. Maybe you will see me again."[1] Her solo rebellion sparked a stop-work meeting by 250 of her newsroom colleagues who made a broader stand for accurate journalism. Dmytruk’s off script interpretation is known as one of several catalysts that caused many Ukrainian journalists to subsequently reject doctored news reports in favor of more balanced reporting.
Nataliya wore an orange ribbon in support of the Orange Revolution.
Co-creating with wild yeasts I swiped from Russian monuments, water from the Densa, Lyib and Dnieper Rivers, agar, fine flour, and plants living along the rivers, fermenting bodies were mixed together. ASL interpreter and Nataliya Dmytruk‘s former co-worker Anna Krigg, described my performance, DEAF dancer Sasha Cherkasy's dance with orange ribbons, and a video projection of the Ukraine Television's stairway with an orange string moving up the staircase.
As Ukraine Watched the Party Line, She Took the Truth Into Her Hands By Nora Boustany, Washington Post, April 29, 2005; Page A19 (in English)
