Do?ínky is a traditional slavic harvest festival that marks the end of the harvest season, honouring those who work the land and expressing the hopes for a fertile season to come. The tradition centres around the ceremonial cutting of the last sheaf of wheat but each region and village across the Slavic world have their own specific interpretations of the ceremony.
Lucie and Kristýna present their own version of this festival drawing on their different roots in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Syria. A central sculpture, made of three legs adorned with three crops, will be the centrepoint of a performance of three songs from three cultures, played on three different flutes.
Performance times: Saturday, 11th October, 1.30pm and Sunday, 12th October, 3.30pm.
Location: Hedge Sheffield. Within Lion Works on Ball Street in Kelham Island
Do?ínky is a performance inspired by the traditional Slavic harvest festival of the same name. Do?ínky is celebrated on one Sunday following the end of the harvest season and comes in the form of a festival involving traditional costumes, songs and a feast. It marks a moment of gratitude and reflection honouring the labour of those who work the land and expressing the hopes for a fertile season to come.
The Do?ínky tradition consists of the ceremonial cutting of the last sheaf of wheat which is deliberately left standing behind on the field. Positioned as visible as possible, it is often decorated with flowers, greenery and sometimes ribbons and is associated with the pagan Slavic rituals for plants, trees and agriculture.
Lucie Korda?ova, in a collaboration with Sheffield-based Syrian Czechoslovak professional musician Kristýna Farag, have produced their own version of the festival celebration.
Do?ínky is celebrated across many regions, each of which usually have their own specific interpretation. For this performance Lucie and Kristýna draw on their respective roots in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Syria. A central metal sculpture, formed of three legs, represents the final sheaf of wheat that forms the basis for most Do?ínky traditions. Each leg of the sculpture is adorned with a different crop: wheat, barley and oat. The performance will include three harvest songs, one Czech, one Slovak and one Arab, each played on a different flute. The three legs of wheat are holding a circle which symbolises our movements across lands and the return to where we are now.
The word Do?ínky is associated with the words ‘do?nít’ or ‘doznít’. The former means ‘to let the crop ripe’ and the latter means ‘to let the sound get quiet. As such the performance leads us towards an ending: of the song, of the harvest, of the season and leaves us with the quiet space between sounds and seasons.
Lucie Kordacova is a Sheffield-based artist creating installations that feature sculptures, moving image and costumes. She often works with a diverse range of materials, using both traditional textile techniques and experimental processes to build a tactile language that bridges sculpture, textiles, and the human form. She understands costumes as wearable sculptures - an extension of the body that can express narrative, emotion, and identity. Her recent work focuses on how we situate ourselves in a more-than-human world, and the transformation of landscapes through human and non-human activity. She is interested in ritualistic practices and myth-making in relation to the land and its protection.
Lucie is part of Yorkshire Sculpture Network (2025). In 2023 she was an artist at S1 Artspace, and is currently an artist at GLOAM gallery in Sheffield.
Kristýna Farag is a Czech flautist, singer, and teacher of Slovak and Syrian heritage, shaping her artistic voice through both classical and Middle Eastern musical traditions. She specialises in 20th-century repertoire, improvisation, and interdisciplinary collaborations, and is a co-winner of the 1st prize at the Friedrich Kuhlau International Competition in Uelzen, Germany.
She founded the Albaidar Duo with Syrian musician and poet Marwan Alsolaiman, arranging and performing Arab classical and folk music. The duo appeared in a music programme in collaboration with Syrian visual artist Issam Kourbaj at his exhibition at Kettle's Yard gallery in Cambridge. Kristýna has also curated a musical response to The Weight of Words exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute, exploring works by Pavel Büchler and Issam Kourbaj. She sings as a soprano with the Leeds Guild of Singers and improvises with the Prague-based quartet Fahrzavö.
Set in Sheffield’s post-industrial Kelham Island, beside the River Don, the exhibition resonates with a place shaped by both industry and regeneration. Here, the artists act as unconventional activists, opening dialogue through visual storytelling, material exploration and quiet resistance.
At its heart, Grit and Graft is a call to notice: to trace the marks we leave, the connections we share, and the possibilities of more symbiotic ways of being.
