Dissent!

I had a fantastic time at two events at the University of Manchester last week. Resilience of Art & The Art of Resilience was a discussion and Q&A with Olesya Ostrovska-Lyuta, the former Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine and Director General of “Mystetskyi Arsenal” in conversation with Olya Onuch at the University of Manchester. This fascinating discussion focused on professional and personal decision making regarding cultural artefacts in times of war.

On Wednesday and Thursday 25 and 26 March I attended parts of Dissent! Museums and Political Disagreement in a Time of Culture Wars and Conflict. My particular interest was the Roundtable on Ukrainian Museums with Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta and Yuliya Vaganova (The Bohdan and Varavara Khanenko National Museum of Arts), facilitated by Olya Onuch at the University of Manchester.

This was a fascinating discussion including the practicalities and responsibility of museums in times of conflict.

I met with Viktoria Bavykina and Viktoria’s partner Max Gorbatskyi who co-curated ‘Net-Making. The National Pavilion of Ukraine at the 60th Venice Biennale’ in 2024. Vika gave me a copy of this fantastic catalogue which I look forward to reading. This year there was an announcement of the participation of the Russian Federation at the forthcoming 61st Venice Biennale. An open letter is available to sign on Change.org here: https://www.change.org/p/61st-venice-biennale-stop-the-normalization-of-war-crimes-through-art

Image: Antenne Books

London

I spent a day in London on Saturday – the 21st March in glorious sunshine, with great company and saw some fantastic art. The day started in Elephant and Castle where I used to live and work. I wanted to see the redevelopment. I found recently plans for the Heygate Estate I photocopied in Southwark Archives around 15–20 years ago. We had breakfast in Cafe House Restaurant, a classic on the Walworth Road.

Archive images: plans for the Heygate Estate in Elephant and Castle from Southwark archives.

Elephant and Castle

Cafe House Restaurant

 

Breakfast in Cafe House Restaurant



The day included eight exhibitions at five galleries. The exhibitions were: Nigerian Modernism at Tate Modern; Tracey Emin: a Second Life at Tate Modern; Yin Xiuzhen: Heart to Heart at the Hayward Gallery; Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Life at the Hayward Gallery; Tetsumi Kudo: Microcosms at Hauser & Wirth; Takesada Matsutami: Shifting Boundaries at Hauser & Wirth; Seth Price: Redistribution 2026–2007, Sadie Coles HQ and David Hockney: A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting, Serpentine North Gallery.

Threads of Life by Chiharu Shiota at the Hayward Gallery



‘There’s a lot of money in chairs’ by Tracey Emin (1994), Tate Modern

‘The Last Supper’ (detail) by Bruce Onobrakpeya (1981) Tate Modern

Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Life at the Hayward Gallery



An empty room at Sadie Coles HQ

David Hockney ‘A Year in Normandie’ at the Serpentine.



Of them all, my current favourite is the Hockney show. A glorious panorama describing a year in the life and work of the artist in France. The concept reminded me of Oliver Grau’s work in Virtual Art (2003). Grau argues the idea of immersion and illusion goes back to painted illusion spaces and in particular the panorama from the 18th century. According to Grau these spaces create illusion in a similar way to the technology available today with which the user can experience interactivity (pp. 4–5).

 

 Agenda

Tartu Conference, Shevchenko Scientific Society Webinar, Europe in a Time of War

 

I am delighted to announce I have a paper accepted and I will be presenting at the Tartu Conference on East European and Eurasian Studies. The conference is at the University of Tartu, the programme is online and includes a fantastic mix of work from area studies, politics, history, cultural studies and other disciplines. My paper is “Archives Across Borders: Animated Testimonies from Ukraine in the Holodomor”. The conference will serve as a deadline for me to complete stage one of the practical work on the Berman archives.



 

 

On March 7 I attended the XLV Annual Shevchenko Scholarly Conference Webinar online from the Shevchenko Scientific Society. The conference, in English and Ukrainian, included opening remarks from Vitaly Chernetsky and presentations from Rory Finnin and Михайло Назеренко. The discussant was George G. Grabowicz.

 

 

Last week I watched a recorded talk from March from the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute online, Anne Applebaum in Conversation with Serhii Plokhii: Europe in a Time of War. This was a compelling discussion focusing on autocratic regimes and the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine. A genuine conversation between two scholars in historical studies and journalism. Anne Applebaum wrote the foreword to “The Holodomor in Global Perspective”. I wrote the final chapter to the book, which is now available from ibidem Press and Columbia University Press online here: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-holodomor-in-global-perspective/9783838219530/