Anton Kats
Anton Kats (b. 1983, Kherson, Ukraine) works as an artist, musician and educator.
His practice draws from the everyday, shaped by the south Ukrainian neighbourhood of Satellite Island in Kherson. Leaving Ukraine in 2000 to claim asylum in Germany, Kats’ work is driven by the urgencies of displacement and the navigation of legal status in Europe through education. As part of this trajectory, Kats was awarded a practice-based PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London, and invited to documenta 14 where he initiated the Narrowcast House and A-Letheia projects.
Motivated by questions of agency and intentionality, Kats works across sound, music, performance, radio, vinyl releases, publications, and research. He develops and realises installations, object-based projects, stage works, and collaborative formats. These take form through learning environments and exhibitions, migratory contexts, with listening infrastructures and radio sound systems. Kats refers to this trajectory as Sonic Antifascism, exploring sound, music, and listening as active agents in antifascist cultural work.
Kats’ projects take shape in both self-organised and institutional contexts. These include commissions and long-term, site-specific projects in museums, galleries, biennials, clubs, music festivals, and radio platforms. Such projects include ‘Listening Hymns’ at Refuge Worldwide in Berlin, a performative spoken word archive and live series, and Grounded Outer Space People, a nomadic music ensemble and artist residency that develops site-specific residencies and performative exhibitions.
Moving between live music and performance, Kats is also known as ILYICH, their reclaimed middle name. Their work spans sonic experimentation across jazz, electronics, avant-pop, and spoken word, extending into theatre and scoring. From this, as Kats, he has lectured at NYU, Goldsmiths, and UDK Berlin, and is Associate Professor of Sonic and Listening Practices at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts.
Kats’ work has been presented at documenta 14, SAVVY Contemporary, the 10th Berlin Biennale, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Serpentine Galleries, steirischer herbst, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Bergen Kunsthall, The Showroom, Kochi Muziris Biennale, and Sophiensæle, as well as Sonic Acts and Roskilde Festival.
Selected Press and Interview Links:
Sonic Acts – Resonances of Hope
springering – Sonic Antifascism oder Avant-Pop?
The Wire – Sudnozavod Soundcheck
Artlink Berlin – On Sonic Antifascism
Deutschlandfunk Kultur – On Sonic Antifascism
Tagesspiegel – Der Krieg kommt in Wellen
Metal Magazine – ILYICH: What is Sonic Antifascism
MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona – Son[i]a Anton Kats
Education:
2014-2017 PhD Goldsmiths University, Goldsmiths University of London
2011-2013 MA Interactive Media: Critical Theory and Practice, Goldsmiths University of London
2010-2011 MA Kunst im Kontext, Gasthörer, UDK, Berlin
Selected Publications and Chapters:
Flying Without Means, Circadian Books 2024
How We Hold: Rehearsals For Art and Social Change. Ed. Amal Khalaf. Serpentine Galleries 2023
Designing for Health & Wellbeing: Home, City, Society. Ed. Graham Cairns. Vernon Press 2019.
aneducation – documenta14. Archive Books, Berlin. 2018
For a Walk With: Dementia in the City. Serpentine Galleries, London. 2016
Sound Space Downtown: Workbook and User Manual. Studio 174, Kingston Jamaica / London UK. 2015
Selected Vinyl:
Afterlife, HKW Berlin, 2024
Vostok 7, SAVVY Contemporary, 2020
Sound Stories Silent Site, CCA Berlin 2020
CONDITIONS: 1218-0719, MÆKUR, Sonic Acts, 2019
Radio Stilts EP, HKW Berlin, 2019
Radio Amateur Ensemble EP Skyway Minneapolis, 2019
Steps and Gestures, documenta14, 2016
Selected Grants, Awards, Fellowships:
Anton Kats is a fellow of the Berlin Artistic Research Programme (2024-25)
Capital Cultural Fund Berlin – HKF (2025)
Fonds Darstellende Künste (2024 – 2025)
Presentation of Contemporary Art Award (2023) Senate Department of Culture, Berlin
Musicboard Berlin (2022) Project Grant: Grounded Outer Space People
Research Grant Fine Art (2022) Senate Department of Culture, Berlin
Research Grant Fine Art (2021) Senate Department of Culture, Berlin
Presentation of Contemporary Art Award (2020) Senate Department of Culture, Berlin
Research Grant Fine Art (2020) Senate Department of Culture, Berlin
Project Grant ILYICH (2020) Musikfonds e.V., Minister of State for Culture and the Media, Berlin
Artist Residency Grant Fine Art New York (2019 – 2020) Senate Department of Culture, Berlin
Selected Projects
2026 – upcoming
After Hope – donaufestival, Krems
After Hope (film) – La Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris
Listening Hymns – Stedelijk Museum / Sonic Acts, Amsterdam
2025
…mission – Kunsthaus Graz, Graz
After Hope – Sophiensæle, Berlin
Sudnozavod – SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin
Listening Hymns – W.H.W., Zagreb
2024
Vostok 7 – Nadežda Petrović Memoria, Čačak
Flyers – Archive of Belonging, London
After Hope – Berlin Artistic Research Programme 2024/2025
Sound Stories Silent Site – House of World Cultures (HKW), Berlin
2023
If not now, when? – House of World Cultures (HKW), Berlin
The Cemetery of Melodies Alive – steirischer herbst, Graz
ILYICH and Grounded Outer Space People – 1014, New York
ILYICH – Arsenic – Centre d’art scénique contemporain, Lausanne
Concrete Listening Show – Refugee Worldwide Radio (ongoing), Berlin
2022
Grounded Outer Space People – Gallery Wedding, Berlin, Germany
Transmigration Library, – Gallery Wedding, Berlin, Germany
It is all an open secret, – H.K.W. – House of World’s Cultures, Berlin, Germany
Concrete Listening Show – Refugee Worldwide Radio (ongoing), Berlin
2021
Grounded Outer Space People – Kulturbraurei, Berlin, Germany
Borealis Festival for Experimental Music – MÆKUR, Bergen, Norway
Radio Crystal – Zone2Source, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2020
Vostok 7 – SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
Sound Crystal – SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
Pre-Formance – Deutsches Haus, New York University, New York, US
MÆKUR – Sonic Acts, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Four Before and After Five – ISCP, New York, US
2019
Radio Amateur Ensemble – Helicotrema Festival, Venice, Italy
ILYICH:AND – Flaneur Festival, HKW (Haus der Kulturen der Welt), Berlin, Germany
MÆKUR – Lighthouse, Brighton, UK
Radio Stilts – HKW (Haus der Kulturen der Welt), Berlin, Germany
Your Craft – Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
Radio Amateur Ensemble – Goethe Institute, Minneapolis, US
2018
MÆKUR – Bergen Kunsthall, Norway
After Joy – Muziris Biennalle, Goethe Institute Bangalore, bangaloREsidency at Pepper House, Kochi, India
Radio Stilts – Radiophonic Spaces, HKW (Haus der Kulturen der Welt), Berlin, Germany
Mittlungsradio – 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
Radio Pedio – Park Fables by Chto Delat & Anton Kats, Commissioned and produced by: Onassis Cultural Center/ Fast Forward Festival 5, Curator: Katia Arfara, Athens, Greece
ILYICH – Concrete Listening, Kherson, Ukraine
Tourist – Journeys Festival International, Leicester, UK
2017
Narrowcast House – Open Radio Studio, Listening Space. documenta14, Kassel, Germany
A-Letheia – Social Sculpture, Site of Learning. documenta14, Athens, Greece
Radio Sound System – Sonic Sculpture, Mobile Radio Station. documenta14, Kassel, Germany
Terminal – documenta14, Kassel, Germany
Giant Steps – documenta14, Kassel and Athens
Another Continuum – documenta14, Athens, Greece
Place of 100 Places – documenta14, Kassel, Germany
2016
Narrowcast Radio – Tate Modern, London, UK.
For a Walk With: Dementia in the City – The Serpentine Galleries, London, UK.
Take Over: FFTV Gallery as a Neighbourhood Model – The Showroom Gallery. London
Site – Sonic Acts Academy. Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The Shipyard Take Over – The Alternativa 2016: Damage and Los. Gdansk, Poland.
Radio Sound System – Studio 174, Kingston, Jamaica.
Unwritten Handbook – Serpentine Galleries, London, UK.
2015
Sound Space Downtown: Workbook and User Manual – Studio 174, London, Kingston, Jamaica.
Artistic Research as Pedagogy – Goldsmiths College. London, UK
Sound Space Downtown – Studio 174, Kingston, Jamaica.
Sound Alphabet – Studio 174, Kingston, Jamaica
Corridor Residency – Westmead Elderly Resource Centre, The Serpentine Galleries, London, UK
For a walk with… – Westmead Elderly Resource Centre, The Serpentine Galleries, London, UK
Fourth Feathers TV – The Showroom Gallery and Fourth Feathers Community Centre, London, UK
Radio Delo – Displaced Film Festival, Berlin, Germany
Radio Delo – Alternativa Art Festival, Gdansk, Poland
2014
Sound Space Downtown, research space (ongoing), Studio 174, Openvizor, Kingston, Jamaica
ABC of Sound, publication, Openvizor, Kingston Jamaica, London UK
Radio Sonar (ongoing) Serpentine Gallery, London
For a walk with…, (ongoing) Edgware Road Project, Serpentine Gallery, London
Fourth Feathers TV, (ongoing) the Showroom Gallery and Fourth Feathers Community Centre, London
2013
For a walk with…, (ongoing) Edgware Road Project, Serpentine Gallery, London
Fourth Feathers TV, (ongoing) the Showroom Gallery, as Part of re-projecting London
Stops in motion, V&A Museum, Sackler Centre Digital Studio, London
One Eye Closed, Photography, Goldsmiths College, London
Character Research Tool, Centre for Possible Studies, Serpentine Gallery, London
Radio SO.N.A.R., (ongoing) Centre for Possible Studies, Serpentine Gallery, London
Greenlight Filmclub, (ongoing) OpenVizor, London
Berta, photography, video, Berlin
To learn what you know, workshops, Goldsmith College, London
2012
Cycling Antenna, moving installation, workshops, Goldsmith College, London
Serpentine Gallery, Butter, Chicago Boys (initiated Hiwa K.) performance, London
Royal College of Art, Chicago Boys (initiated Hiwa K.) performance, London
Snowflake, new media, Goldsmith College, London
Radio Delo, video
Becoming surplus value, video
2011
Radio Delo, photography
Group Affinity, Chicago Boys (initiated Hiwa K.) performance, summer school Kunstverein Muenchen,
Munich
Systemchange Studygroup with Claudia Hummel and Anneta Krauss, Berlin
Alternativa, Participant at Art-Festival, Gdansk, Poland,
Butter, Chicago Boys (initiated Hiwa K.) performance, photography, New Gallery, London
V Krugu HipHopa, music tour in St.Petersburg and N.Nowogorod, with adolescent young People from Berlin,
Goethe Institute St.Petersburg, Gangway e.V
A Chto Delat?’s 48 hours Seminar-Commune and Learning Play “Where has Communism Gone?”. Smart Project Space, Amsterdam.
Tourist, Photography
2010
Chicago Boys: While We Were Singing They Were Dreaming, ongoing performance and research project initiated by Hiwa K., Serpentine, London
Legal Leben, exhibition with former detained adolescents, Archiv der Jungedkulturen, Gangway e.V., Berlin
Dimitry Vilensky was ist zu tun?, video discussion with Dimitry Vilensky (Chto Delat?) about forms of
self-organisation and self-education of an artist
Blohina Street 18, anthropological video research about Lenins thesis on communal living
2009
Estrangement Project, Gdansk/London/Berlin “Kolja and Dasha”, Showroom London, documentary project, St. Petersburg
Top 9 Russian Breaking Foundation, documentary film, St. Petersburg
2008
A Walk with a Hat, choreography for the Circus Upsala, St. Petersburg
Meeting of Styles, documentary film, Graffiti Festival, Mainz
Act Bloom, performance
2007
Die Füchsin, short film, storyboard
Curiouserfilms, video research, film production company
Japan Ska. Kultur und Globalisierung, documentary film.
2006
The Skaliners, music arrangement and artistic support during Japan tour of the band