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