Themes by tag: culture

28-year-old photographer Vitalii Yurasov has been documenting the war for almost one and a half years. He filmed battles, prisoner exchanges and secret operations of special forces. Vitalii doesn’t just visit the military, he lives together with the heroes he films at the frontline: he sleeps where they sleep and helps with whatever is necessary.

On October 15, Yurasov’s first photo exhibition “War Face Project” will open in the capital. He will present more than 50 works, in particular, those signed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Valerii Zaluzhnyi and Kyrylo Budanov.

Journalists are welcome to visit the opening of the exhibition and talk with Vitalii Yurasov in the capital.

• culture
• military
• Kyiv

On October 8, Kyiv will host a concert, a photo exhibition, a frontline float, and panel discussions that will address the topic of rebuilding Ukrainian cities after the de-occupation. The event is Ukraïner’s Brave Cities video project next up and aims to raise UAH 10,000,000 to support the Come Back Alive Foundation.

Last year, the Ukraїner team presented the Brave Cities research project. It’s a series of videos telling the story of the struggle of the temporarily occupied cities whose residents are heroically resisting. The videos were created by the Ukraїner team in cooperation with local historians, historians, civic activists, and athletes i.e. those who know and feel these localities best. Ukrainian musicians also joined the project and wrote songs about some of these cities. These songs will be performed at the charity concert. Palindrome, Druha Rika, Kryhitka, OTOY, Lilu 45, Sasha Chemerov, and others are among the participants.

Prior accreditation is required for the media representatives. 

• culture
• Kyiv

On October 5, the American artist Colette Miller will create a mural on Arsenalna Square in the capital, which will be followed by an official unveiling.

She came to Ukraine to create a street art installation that will become part of the Global Angel Wings Project.

Her “wings” are already adorning the streets of Kenya, London’s Heathrow International Airport, a refugee camp and an exquisite wall of a modern estate in France.

Prior accreditation for the media is required.

For reference: The American artist also created the mural “Angel Wings” on Sicheslavska Embankment in Dnipro.

• culture
• women
• Kyiv

Labyrinths of Unbreakable Cities is a joint project of the Mariupol City Council and the Bakhmut City Military Administration aiming to help rethink the traumatic experience of war and its impact on the architectonics of Ukrainian cities.

The Labyrinths of Unbreakable Cities program will bring together representatives of the cultural, educational, technical, media, and creative spheres, as well as government officials and IDPs. The project should contribute to new initiatives to rebuild, restore, and revive cities that have suffered large-scale destruction and terrible loss of their historical and architectural heritage.

The exhibition will help to comprehend the depth of the losses of Mariupol and Bakhmut through a detailed exposition showing the buildings destroyed by the Russians and the mutilated streets, reminding us of what these unique cities looked like before the full-scale invasion. A separate interactive part of the exhibition is dedicated to visualizing the future of Mariupol.

For reference: Mariupol Reborn is the largest urban revival project in Europe since the Second World War. The project is being implemented on behalf of the head of the Donetsk Regional Administration, as well as with the support of the EBRD, the World Bank, the USAID Economic Support for Ukraine Project, and SCM. They have joined forces to rebuild Mariupol using modern practices, the latest technologies, and best practices. They are working on a clear plan to start rebuilding quickly and efficiently right away after de-occupation. The Mariupol Reborn plan has already been supported by the municipalities of Lviv, Vilnius, Gdansk, Wroclaw, and Utrecht.

• culture
• Lviv

Ukraine’s largest book festival — the Lviv International Bookforum — is being held in person again. The agenda includes over 150 events with the participation of 200 authors. The Bookforum will be filled with discussions, meetings and presentations. Due to the partnership with the Hay Festival (UK), 25 major discussions of the festival will be broadcast in English and with Spanish subtitles.

The topic of focus of the festival’s discussion platform is “Rewriting the Future.”

The guests of the festival include Ukrainian and foreign writers, intellectuals, journalists and poets: Jonathan Franzen, Elif Batuman, Halyna Kruk and David Toscana; essayists Rebecca Solnit and Pankaj Mishra; filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk; YA star Jonathan Stroud; cartoonist Art Spiegelman; poets Svitlana Povaliaeva and Pavlo Vyshebaba; Nobel Prize-winner Oleksandra Matviichuk; scholar Oleksandr Mykhed; journalists Alan Rusbridger, Ed Vulliamy, Charlotte Higgins, Christina Lamb, Vitaly Portnikov, Tetyana Teren and Luke Harding; writers Taras Prokhasko and Andrii Lyubka; philosopher Yermolenko Volonko; poets Ben Okri, Yaryna Chornohuz and Paata Shamugia; doctor Rachel Clark; policy analyst David Rieff; historians Timothy Garton Ash and Anne Applebaum; philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy; lawyer Philippe Sands; plus commemorations for Ukrainian writers Victoria Amelina and Volodymyr Vakulenko, recently killed in the war.

Joining online: Anne Applebaum (U.S.), Ben Okri (Nigeria), Ewa Thompson (U.S.), Art Spiegelman (U.S.), Georgi Gospodinov (Bulgaria), Jonathan Franzen (U.S.), Pankaj Mishra (India), Ozren Kebo (Bosnia), Slavenka Drakulić (Croatia) and others.

Prior accreditation is required. Accredited journalists will have the opportunity to arrange interviews with Bookforum participants.

• culture

Mariia Yudina is an artist and designer. The girl comes from Berdiansk city, Zaporizhia region (currently under Russian control). 

Mariia faced the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion in Kyiv, where she came to bring an art project to life. Later, volunteers approached the artist with an offer to paint the remains of wrecked and damaged weapons. Since then, a one-off project developed into a regular basis art object-making. Mariia donates the painted shell casings, tubes, flasks, and remnants of rockets to charity auctions and fundraisers.

The artist mostly paints flowers on used weapons. Her slogan is: “They launch missiles, and I draw flowers on it.” Now the artist is also working on painting tubes with views of different cities: Zaporizhia, and Melitopol. Maria has also depicted landscapes of her native Berdiansk. She also plans to portray the Crimea landscape. 

• culture
• volunteers
• women
• Kyiv

A short film, “What Have We Lost?” written and acted by teenagers, will be screened in Kyiv. The film’s authors are children who survived the occupation, life near the fighting unfolded, traveling abroad, and other challenges of war. They will also present the film to journalists.

The teenagers created the film as part of an art therapy screenwriting course implemented by the Voices of Children Charitable Foundation. For three months, under the supervision of the director Marisa Nikitiuk, a group of children learned to live through the trauma of war through art.

The private screening of the film will take place on September 13.

Participants of the conversation:

• Nastia, Valeria, and Sofia, participants of the course, screenwriters, and actors of the film;
• Olena Rozvadovska, children’s human rights activist, Chair of the Voices of Children Foundation;
• Marysia Nikitiuk, film director (Ya.Nina, When Trees Fall), the screenwriting course tutor.

Actress Irma Vitovska and Azad Safarov, the second director of the “A House Made of Splinters” documentary, are others in attendance. 

Event accreditation is required.

For information: The Children’s Voices Charitable Foundation provides psychological and psychosocial support to children and parents affected by war.

• casualties
• children
• culture
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

Oksana Anisimova got down to setting up a museum in the Zemlianka village. It happened after the villagers decided to rename Lenin Street and name it after one of their prominent fellow villagers. That’s how the residents learned about their fellow countrywoman, Pelaheia Lytvynova-Bartosh, an ethnographer and researcher who worked in this area in the late 19th century. Pelaheia’s example inspired people to establish an ethnographic museum. In the museum, villagers collect ancient artifacts that they have kept since the time of their great-grandmothers and restore forgotten Ukrainian customs. Before the outbreak of the full-scale war, the museum was visited by many tourists, including foreigners. Although the enemy army did not occupy the village of Zemlianka in the Sumy region, the border area became dangerous to stay at.

• culture
• Sumy

In the Korolenko State Scientific Library of Kharkiv, emergency works are currently ongoing. In particular, a temporary protective cover is being installed over the building.

In March 2022, the entire library complex was damaged due to rocket attacks by the occupiers on the center of Kharkiv. For instance, fragments of shells and rockets pierced the roof of the main building, destroyed the lantern above the atrium (damaging stained glass windows). Blast waves knocked out windows throughout the library. The ceilings in the workrooms began to crumble. The heating system was destroyed. Workers are trying to keep the library fund safe from moisture and mold.

According to preliminary estimates, UAH 70 million are needed for repair and restoration works.

For reference: The main building of the library was designed by O. M. Beketov, an outstanding Ukrainian architect (built in 1901). The building is an architectural monument and a part of urban infrastructure of state importance. It is under state protection.

• culture
• reconstruction
• russian crimes
• Kharkiv

The Ukrainian VR project “FIRST DAY” directed by Valeriy Korshunov and produced by Svitlana Korshunova will be presented for the first time at the 80th Venice International Film Festival.

FIRST DAY is a fully immersive first-person VR experience that transports the visitor to the first day of russia’s full-scale invasion, and allows them to experience the internal transformation that Ukrainians went through on February 24, 2022.

The project is based on the stories of real people. The viewer will be able to see the houses of Borodyanka and Bucha destroyed by invaders’ shells. Along with a large number of other artifacts of the war, the buildings were scanned and then reproduced in virtual space.

The project will be presented in Ukraine on September 7. At the closed press event, journalists will have an opportunity to visit the project’s virtual location in VR helmets, talk with the authors of the project and the founders of Venice Immersive in a live virtual format. Residents of Borodyanka and Hostomel, who witnessed the occupation and who can share their experiences, are also invited to the project presentation.

Prior accreditation is required.

For reference: The 80th Venice International Film Festival began on August 30 and will last until September 9.

• culture
• occupation
• russian crimes