Culture identifies a country and the time in which it exists, and makes it possible to convey Ukrainian meanings and narratives to an international audience. At the same time, international platforms and cultural events have become points of contact between Ukrainian and russian cultures, perspectives, and narratives.

In the first days of the invasion, the “Cancel russian Culture” movement emerged. The slogan, which seemed too radical to the rest of the world, marked a period of active struggle for the imposition of “cultural sanctions” against russian cultural products. The call to cancel all russian culture, not to show their films at festivals, not to invite russian artists to conferences, forums, workshops, and residencies quickly acquired clarifications and explanations, as it became clear that this rhetoric does not work for our foreign partners, and paradoxically, russian culture receives more attention, while we lose our influence.

Ukrainian artists and representatives of cultural institutions realised that a more complex and detailed approach was needed, and now the main demand for foreign cultural events and institutions was to rethink the imperial nature of russian culture.

At the same time, the community tried to develop a common position and a certain set of internal rules of behaviour in the new situation. The question of whether to participate in events/ residencies where russians are also present was actively discussed both in private conversations and in long public debates, and although a certain shared position has been developed, everyone continues to address this issue anew each time in the context of a specific situation.

At what point in this dynamic process are we now, in the third year of a full-scale war? Has Ukraine gained agency in the field of culture in the global context as a result of the work of artists and cultural institutions over the past two years? What strategy of communication with the outside world is effective today and can be effective tomorrow? We will talk about this together with speakers from different cultural fields.

Speakers:
Natalie Movshovych is the head of the Film Department at the Ukrainian Institute;

Sofia Cheliak is a cultural manager and a host of the Suspilne Culture channel; 

Hanna Hadetska is a musical expert, co-founder and program director of Open Opera Ukraine;

Olga Gibelinda is a Ukrainian director, producer and screenwriter;

Oksana Semenik is an art historian, researcher and journalist.

Moderator: Yelizaveta Smith, a director and producer.

Natalie Movshovych is cultural manager, specializing in film promotion, international projects and cultural diplomacy, and holds the position of Head of Film at the Ukrainian Institute since 2021. With over 10 years of experience in the film industry she previously worked for Arthouse Traffic distribution company, co-organized 3 editions of the Odesa International Film Festival as a part or PR- team and managed PR&Publicity for Universal and Paramount Pictures Ukraine. She also had a long-term collaboration with the British Council within the Culture Bridges programme.

Sofia Cheliak is a host of the Suspilne Culture channel, a cultural manager, and a member of PEN Ukraine. Since 2016, she has been working as a programme director at the Publishers’ Forum NGO, and since 2022, she has been working at the international department of the Ukrainian Book Institute. She has implemented Ukrainian programs at book fairs and festivals around the world. Since the start of the full- scale invasion, she has been working on Suspilne Culture’s Cultural Instinct project, which is a series of interviews with cultural figures regarding war, history, and social sciences.

Hanna Hadetska is a musical expert, co-founder and program director of Open Opera Ukraine. Since 2009, she has been working at the Department of Theory and History of Culture at the National Music Academy of Ukraine. In 2017, she founded the Open Opera Ukraine union, which implements international practices of opera production. As an expert, Hanna participates in various cultural and artistic events: the Bouquet Kyiv Stage Festival, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, and the 300th Anniversary of Hryhorii Skovoroda exhibitions. Since 2023, she has been the program director of the Kyiv Baroque Festival, which introduces a systematic approach to the development of early music in Ukraine.

Olga Gibelinda is a Ukrainian director, producer and screenwriter. She actively works in the fields of documentary and fiction cinema and is known for her work on the films Something (2011), Kobzar. The Story of a Book (2014), Just an evening (2022) and others. Olga is also a member of the Ukrainian and European Film Academies and the founder of Malanka Studios.

Oksana Semenik is an art historian, researcher and journalist. She is the author of the Ukrainian Art History account on X (formerly Twitter) and the author of the programme Ukrainian Art in Names on Radio Culture. Curator of the Art Course at Zminotvortsi. She researches the image of the Chornobyl disaster in Ukrainian art, the work of Maria Prymachenko, and other women artists. She has been published in Vogue Ukraine, Ukrainska Pravda, Lb.ua, Telegraph Design, Korydor, Chytomo, Artslooker and others.

In 2014, Yelizaveta Smith co- founded the Tabor film company. She started volunteering with children in the town of Mykolaivka in the Donetsk area. Her experience there led to the School Number 3 documentary, which was co-directed by George Genoux and won the Grand Prix of the Berlinale Generation 14+ competition. Her film Solitude was selected to the Odesa IFF and Raindance in 2019. She is currently working on the film Vacuum, and the documentaries Listening To The World and The Days I Would Like To Forget. She is also a member of the Ukrainian and European Film Academies.