POST-WAR MEMORY CULTURE IN UKRAINE
‘Post-War Memory Culture in Ukraine’ is a long-term programme developed by the NGO Museum of Contemporary Art in partnership with the Past / Future / Art memory culture platform. Initially supported by the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine, and later continued with the support of the Partnership for a Resilient Ukraine (PFRU), which is funded by the governments of the European Union.
The memory of the Russian-Ukrainian war is now taking shape — and it is important to support the practice of jointly developing commemorative messages.
In a situation of threat to existence, the issue of social resilience is crucial. Ukraine needs a new state memory policy to build a new clear identity devoid of traces of the totalitarian regime. During the 30 years of Ukraine’s independence, memory policy has not been in the focus of the state’s attention — now it is a tool for creating a vision of the future, and therefore is an important factor in social resilience.
A critical component of the work on the state memory policy is the development of a model of cooperation between the state and society in dealing with the past. Its effective development requires broad public discussions initiated by art exhibitions, lectures, and educational products. In this regard, the programme included public discussions, roundtables, and presentations to a wide range of independent experts and government institutions: The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communication, the Ministry of Development of Communities and Territories, and others.
Taking into account that regional identities change dramatically during the invasion, the programme aimed to capture and develop the potential of Ukrainian solidarity in a situation of regional diversity. By documenting and interpreting the role of different regions in the war, the programme helped to overcome prejudices that existed within the country before the war. To develop a common vision while preserving local experience, the programme engaged local communities in the Kyiv region and representatives of local communities, businesses and institutions in Kharkiv, Vinnytsia, Chernihiv, Lviv and other cities.
In this way, the programme contributed to the development of Ukraine’s memory policy by engaging all actors, from the national government to local communities in different regions of Ukraine, with a special focus on those who were directly and severely affected by the Russian invasion. Working with memory politics through various practices: an exhibition project based on an archive of artworks created after the start of the large-scale invasion, the development of a preliminary text of the state memory policy, dialogue meetings with local communities, support and advice in the creation of a local memorial — together with actors working on shared memory, helped to engage the widest possible audience to observe and engage in the processes of official and private memory politics.
Memorialisation Practices Laboratory is a research project with a practical component aimed at finding a new visual language for commemorating the Russian-Ukrainian war. The project is curated by Olga Balashova and Yuliia Hnat (MOCA NGO), Kateryna Semeniuk and Oksana Dovgopolova (The Past / Future / Art memory culture platform).
Memorialisation Practices Lab aims to expand approaches to the creation of memorial projects. What is the significance of memorials today? How do they influence our lives and future? What should they look like after 24 February 2022? The programme participants had the opportunity to answer these questions by developing their own ideas for memorial projects.
The Laboratory consisted of two parts:
1. Regular online meetings and workshops with experts in the fields of Memory Studies and public history, psychology, and international law. Among the invited lecturers were: Anton Liagusha, Hnat Zabrodsky, Natalia Kryvda, Larysa Denysenko, Hanna Bodnar, and Hanna Glu. The educational part of the Laboratory was attended by artists, historians, teachers, and people in other fields.
2. A smaller group of participants developed memorial projects for one of the cases of war commemoration proposed by the organizers in Moshchun, Odesa, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv. A description of the places of remembrance and visualisations of the ideas can be found here.
Programme details are available here.
The ‘Practice about Art, Memory and History’ course, created in partnership with the Kyiv Academy of Media Arts and the Kyiv School of Economics, aims to study, reflect on and develop cultural products that are thematically related to individual and collective memory, forms of social trauma, community histories and popular history.
This educational programme offers an insight into the history and development of culture and art through work with memory, history and communities, as well as practical work with imagery in individual practice, and public activities.
The course is curated by Halyna Hleba, Olga Balashova, Yuliia Hnat and Anna-Mariia Kucherenko.
The course consists of two parts:
1. Basic intensive: based on general knowledge of project activities in the field of art with a focus on working with public memory, including an introduction to the history of contemporary art, project management, communication, legal aspects, etc.
2. A six-month in-depth course aimed at researching the topics of memorialisation, war, and cooperation with communities in the occupied and de-occupied territories. It includes historical aspects of the relationship between art and memory, the culture of remembrance, the basics of working with communities, project management, and work on a final project.
More information about the programme is available on the Kyiv Academy of Media Arts website.
Both educational programmes were implemented with the support of the Partnership for a Resilient Ukraine Foundation.
On 1 June 2023, the opening of the inaugural UMCA project ‘How are you? Exhibition and Discussion’ ttok place. Its goal was to reflect on the experience of Ukrainians during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and to take a step towards forming a vision of a common future.
The exhibition featured works by 96 artists from different regions of Ukraine who are part of the Wartime Art Archive, founded by MOCA NGO. It occupied five floors of the National Centre ‘Ukrainian House’ in Kyiv which were organised chronologically. The exhibition not only presented wartime art, documentation and reflection of events through the eyes of artists, but also recorded the changing social landscape and the increasing number of voices and narratives about the war during the full-scale invasion, which at that time had been going on for a year and a half. A virtual 3D-tour was created to provide future access to the exhibition.
The Past / Future / Art memory culture platform curated the discussion programme of the project, which consisted of six events. They addressed the formation of collective memory and a common vision of the future among social groups with different experiences of the war, the importance of art, documentation and literature in wartime and their impact on understanding the now and in the future.
‘Suspilne.Kultura has published transcripts of the four discussions:
• ‘Art as Testimony, Art and Testimony’ – about the experience of Ukrainians, the conditions under which art becomes testimony, and when it can go beyond documentary.
• ‘Experience and Memory – Mapping the Future’ – about how the experience of war can transform Ukrainians and become an element of collective memory; how we map the future and define the boundaries of our world.
• ‘Collective memory in Ukraine: who works with it, how and why?’ – about how the experiences that all Ukrainians are currently going through can be transformed into elements of collective memory.
• ‘How do works of art shape the memory of war?’ – about the place of art during the war, in particular literature against the backdrop of disasters through the prism of W.G. Sebald’s book Air War and Literature.
In addition, during the project, Beehiveor, a leading neuroscience research centre, conducted a study using a unique ANIMA test, which helps to monitor and address mental and emotional health issues.
Visitors had the opportunity to take part in anxiety and depression tests before and after visiting the exhibition. These assessments combined traditional psychological questionnaires with the innovative ANIMA Attention Deficit Disorder assessment that uses eye tracking via a webcam.
The report of the study ‘Neuroscientific analysis of the mental health of visitors to the art exhibition “How are you?” in Kyiv, June 2023’ can be found here.
The diary ‘How are you?’ is an art book for thoughts and notes created in partnership with ist publishing, chronologically covering the events of 2022-2023 and including some of the artworks from the exhibition.
As part of dialogue meetings and interaction with communities affected by the war, the PWMC team joined the working group responsible for developing the concept of memorial sites and routes in the Kyiv region. The working group was initiated by the State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine and members of the MOCA NGO and the Past / Future / Art memory culture platform. The working group also included representatives of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communication, the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, and representatives of local communities in the Kyiv Region.
The main goal of the working group was to identify and form a route throughout the places of remembrance associated with the Russian-Ukrainian war, develop and approve recommendations for behaviour, and modern approaches to the creation of memorials as part of the implementation of one or more sites in the Kyiv region. In September 2023, the working group held two strategic sessions to define the goals of the memorial route, which aimed to align the vision of all stakeholders, their interests, and the interests of the project beneficiaries.
Both strategic sessions were moderated by the international technical assistance project ‘Support to Ukraine’s Government Reform’ (SURGe), funded by the Government of Canada.
As a result, the project team prepared a concept for a pilot project to memorialise the sites of the Russian-Ukrainian war in Kyiv.
Study and dialogue visits were conducted in Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Bucha, Irpin, Hostomel and Makariv in Kyiv oblast, Poltava, Lviv (participation in the Public History Workshop organised by the Centre for Urban History in Lviv), and Odesa (negotiations with local stakeholders, including the regional authorities, Odesa business club, etc. on the possible contribution of the RMC to the development strategy of Odesa oblast). The meetings were aimed at joint discussion and consultation on memory policy, local memorialisation processes, and a vision of the way to create an inclusive policy involving local experiences.
In cooperation with a team of lawyers and experts in the field of history and memory, the PWMC team developed a Policy note: Language of commemoration and recommendations for a memory policy. These recommendations are intended to guide the development of a memory policy that integrates different perspectives and promotes dialogue on understanding Ukraine’s past, with a key focus on dignity and human rights. It is divided into four main parts:
• ‘Mapping Memory’ – an initial study of the main issues raised during the discussion with stakeholders, which lays the groundwork for the development of a memory policy in Ukraine.
• ‘Results of Sociological Research’ is an analytical segment that offers an understanding of the social and cultural perception of memory at different social levels and in different geographical regions through qualitative and quantitative research.
• ‘The Language of Memory’ is dedicated to the study of the new language of memory and the demonstration of successful commemorative practices both in Ukraine and internationally that meet the public demand for a developed language of memory.
• ‘History Policy’ is an analysis of historical policy models that combines the theoretical framework with Ukraine’s specific challenges, including legislative aspects, institutional roles, and transitional justice aspects.
The document concludes with policy recommendations for an inclusive memory policy in Ukraine.
The policy paper was distributed to over 50 key stakeholders working on memorialisation issues (including the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance and the State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine). An online public discussion was also held, which resulted in more than 500 comments and suggestions.
The final document is available here.
Part of the programme included participation in the development of methodological recommendations for the memorialisation of the events of the Russian-Ukrainian war, initiated by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance. These recommendations focus on activities related to the preservation and commemoration of the memory of participants, victims and events of the Russian-Ukrainian war. It is about promoting an established and time-tested language of remembrance in Ukraine, which should be adopted at both national and local levels.
In the course of the work, the PWMC team provided examples of Ukrainian and international cases of memorialisation, counter-memorials, network memorials and intangible commemorative practices to familiarise communities with a modern and more effective language of commemoration.
The document with recommendations for local communities on preserving and commemorating the memory of participants, victims and events of the Russian-Ukrainian war published by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance is available here.
The PWMC project team has created three educational video courses on memory, memorialisation, and related fields. Two of them are lectures by Oksana Dovgopolova, co-curator of the Past / Future / Art memory culture platform, Doctor of Philosophy, Professor at the Kyiv School of Economics, and member of the Past / Future / Art Memory Studies Association. The third part of the course is organised in the form of discussions between Olga Balashova and professionals working with memory in the fields of history, politics and art.
In May-June 2022, many memorial projects began to emerge requiring a new symbolic language. Based on this turning point, this series of videos is about the definition of a memorial, how they have changed the world, how to read the message of a memorial, and what relationships people have with memorials and places of memory.
During the 6 lectures published on the Zrozumilo platform, Oksana Dovgopolova talks about the main visual forms and techniques in memorials, how they can heal social wounds or provoke work with difficult issues of the past, whether memorial language can change, and the importance of temporary memorials.
In the second part of the course, published on the platform Kulturnyi Proekt, Oksana Dovgopolova addresses the problem of rooting our language of war memorialisation in Soviet practices of commemorating the Second World War, which, without critical reflection, will become a major problem in the future.
In 9 short videos, she answers the following questions: Why is it important to work with traumatic memory and what are the stages of its processing? What does it mean to work with memory in a democratic country and what are the dangers of totalitarian practices? What traps are important not to fall into when shaping collective memory?
The third part of the video course is a series of expert conversations about the practices of memory and memorial work necessary for processing the tragedy of war and recovery, created in partnership with Ukraїner media.
It includes 10 meetings of Olga Balashova with professional experts who represent different views on the processes that will take place in Ukrainian society in the coming decades, with a focus on understanding artistic practices and artistic images that help to remember and imagine “the future after the catastrophe”.
In addition, text versions of these expert conversations have been published on the Ukraїner website.
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