VOLUME 9 of the INSTITUT experiment. Every week, a different hypothesis. Underground at 620 Spadina Ave — around the back, through the lot to the steel doors, down the stairs, past the mechanical room, through the swinging wood laminate door.
5PM | UA THEATRE SALON | BOMB by Natalka Blok
Surreal dark comedy reading: Dasha, a Ukrainian activist with a bomb inside her that could save Ukraine; directed by Lianna Makuch.
A dramatic reading of a surreal dark comedy about Dasha, a Ukrainian activist with a bomb inside her that could save Ukraine. Directed by Lianna Makuch.
LIANNA MAKUCH is a second generation Ukrainian Canadian theatre artist who has traveled several times to Ukraine to research and develop her plays Barvinok and Alina. She received a Dora Award for Outstanding Direction for her directorial debut, First Métis Man of Odesa, which has been seen on stages nationwide. Her work has taken her to the Stratford Festival, the Banff Centre, the Citadel Theatre, and MacEwan University. She has been honoured as one of UDonation International's 50 Canadian Fellows of Ukraine, received Ukrainian Canadian Congress Leadership Awards, and her theatre work has been referenced in the House of Commons.
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ANDREW KUSHNIR is a Canadian playwright, director, performer, teacher and community arts worker based in Toronto. He is artistic director of Project: Humanity, a socially-engaged theatre company where much of his documentary theatre work is done. The inaugural recipient of the Shevchenko Foundation REACH artist residency, he was named one of ten Canadian Artists of the Year by the Globe and Mail in 2023. In 2024 he received the Dora Award for Outstanding Direction and the Toronto Theatre Critics' Award for Best Director of a Play.
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7PM | LIVE SCORE | MAJD SUKAR x AL MUMMIA (SHADI ABDEL SALAM, 1969)
Ambient pedal-soaked clarinet colouring the Egyptian classic also known as The Night of Counting The Years
A live clarinet improvisation laid over one of Egyptian cinema's most haunting and visually arresting masterworks.
MAJD SUKAR is a Syrian-Canadian clarinetist whose fusion of Middle Eastern folk and classical music with jazz has made him a distinctive voice in the Toronto music scene. A soloist and improviser, he has performed with Robi Botos, Drew Jurecka and Andrew Downing, and has toured over 30 Canadian cities with the Canadian Arabic Orchestra since 2016. He is a member of Romani Jazz, Moneka Arabic Jazz, Fethi Nadjem North African Ensemble and Spiral Modes.
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9 PM | CONCERT | SONIC MIRAGE (UA)
Ukrainian folk traditions refracted through improvisation, drone, and electronic psych-groove. A closer look at the flute not as accompaniment, but as pulse, texture, and unstable signal.
SONIC MIRAGE is the solo project of Toronto-based flutist and improviser Artur Safronov (INSOMNIA). Moving between Ukrainian folk music, free improvisation, and contemporary electronic genres, the project blends acoustic performance with trance, psych-groove, and meditative repetition. Drawing from classical and early Baroque traditions as much as from underground electronic music, Safronov approaches the flute as a live, reactive instrument — something capable of carrying rhythm, atmosphere, and raw emotional movement simultaneously. Each set unfolds differently: layered, intuitive, and shaped entirely in the moment.
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11 PM | VINTAGE VINYL | JUANA GO-GO
Eclectic vinyl-rooted selections of Latin and global sounds connecting memory, diaspora and movement, presented by Sonic Sancocho
Latin funk, soul, cumbia, salsa and global rhythms — sonic journeys that connect memory, diaspora and movement.
JUANA GO-GÓ is a Toronto-based DJ, vinyl selector and cultural curator known for crafting immersive dance floor experiences rooted in Latin and global sounds. Her sets move as travesías sonoras — sonic journeys that connect memory, diaspora and movement — weaving together Latin funk, soul, cumbia, salsa and global rhythms into dynamic, genre-fluid sets. She is the co-founder of Sonic Sancocho, a hybrid platform and radio show that brings together live music, DJ culture and community ritual. Whether behind the decks or on the airwaves, Juana Go-Gó is driven by a belief in music as a tool for connection — bridging cultures, generations and geographies through rhythm and shared experience.
SONIC SANCOCHO is a Toronto-based cultural platform and radio show founded in 2024 by Olasconola & Juana Go-Gó, rooted in the spirit of Sancocho, a rich, shared Latin American stew. Like the dish, it's layered, collective, and made to bring people together — blending vinyl DJ culture, live performance, and global sounds into immersive, ritual-like gatherings.