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In war

Im Krieg - Ukraine - tanz.dance
Who protects from the shooters?

Kinder Album @iamkinderalbum

Culture is playing a different role. For eight years now, the independent state of Ukraine, since 31 years only, has been defending itself against the aggressor from the East. Only with weapons, as the news claims? What can defend the people who seek protection from invaders?

Polina Bulat

In circumstances of peace, we usually perceive culture as something on the borderline of education and entertainment, or use the word “culture” as a synonym for art. But what if it is not the culture of a society that impacts the choice to commit or not to commit violence? To destroy or to create? To hurt or to heal?

Since 2014, Ukraine has been fighting for its own territories and people on them. From 2022 — for democracy and humanism in opposition to russian terror. In recent years, artists in Ukraine have been mostly engaged in activist art and work a lot with memory, shaping Ukrainian narratives to replace artificial Soviet ones. Modern Ukraine is only 31 years old, and also through art it is gaining its subjectivity. From this article you will understand why this is happening now (again).

The theater in Mariupol
Oleksii Sai

Soviet-style ballerinas carry Vladimir Putin to the grave

What is the function of dance in this process? In addition to the philosophical reassembly of being, it literally starts the process of healing the spirit through the body. And creates a community — the only safe place for Ukrainians in the face of an unpredictable existential threat. For example, a Kyiv-based freelance choreographer Khrystyna Slobodyanyuk using her body to take people by the hand, in the middle of a war, is one of the stories I’m sharing of my homeland.

A Culture to Fight for Life

3,17 €

When Russian troops occupy Ukrainian cities and towns, they bring Russian school textbooks and Russian school teachers. Meanwhile, in Russia, references to Ukraine and Kyiv are removed from textbooks wherever possible. Russian missiles are aimed not only at infrastructure and civilian objects, but also at museums, ancient churches, mansions and theaters

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