The war is still ongoing, but there is a demand from society for its commemoration. Who should create its framework: the state, society, or the professional community? Should the state draw certain red lines? What challenges does Russia’s full-scale invasion pose to Ukrainian traditions of remembrance?

Speakers:
Kateryna Chuieva, Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine; Mariana Oleskiv, Chairperson of the State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine (SATD); Dr Yurii Savchuk, Director General of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, PhD in History, Merited Figure of Culture; Dr Natalia Kryvda, PhD in Philosophy, Professor of the Department of Ukrainian philosophy and culture of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Academic Director of the Edinburgh Business School in Ukraine; Volodymyr Borodiansky, producer

Moderators: Oksana Dovgopolova, Yuliia Hnat

We have all found ourselves in a situation where there are no templates of social behaviour to rely on. This is both a collective and personal challenge. How are we changing as a society? What experience will we take with us into the future, shaping a picture of our shared past?

Speakers:
Ivanna Skyba-Yakubova, cultural manager, volunteer, co-founder of the Bagels & Letters PR agency; Dr Alla Petrenko-Lysak, PhD in Social Sciences, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Sociology of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv; Maksym Rokhmaniko, architect, founder and director of The Center for Spatial Technologies; Daryna Vilkhova, sociologist, researcher at the Center for Spatial Technologies

Moderator: Oksana Dovgopolova

In 1999, W. G. Sebald’s book On the Natural History of Destruction about the collective memory and amnesia of the Germans after WWII was published. The Ukrainian translation of the book was released by ist publishing in 2023. We will take Sebald’s ideas as a starting point in our discussion to talk about the language of literature against the background of disasters.

Speakers:
Dr Oksana Dovgopolova, PhD in Philosophy, researcher in the field of memory studies, co-founder and curator of the memory culture platform Past / Future / Art; Dr Roman Osadchuk, translator and literary critic, PhD in Translation Studies; Yevhenii Stasinevych, literary critic and scholar

Moderator: Borys Filonenko

Can we laugh during a war? Sometimes laughter is the only thing that keeps us from being afraid. The full-scale invasion provoked a wave of humorous practices in Ukraine. Has there been something fundamentally new in Ukrainian comedy since February 24, 2022?

Speakers:
Dr Anton Lyagusha, PhD in History, Dean of the Social and Humanities Faculty of the Kyiv School of Economics; Orest Semotyuk, researcher at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Moderator: Oksana Dovgopolova

Can we (and should we?) separate art and documentation during an invasion? When it comes to open wounds, we balance between the need to testify and the impossibility of using a person as a tool to achieve a goal. We will not talk about abstract principles but discuss specific cases of the use of documentation that have already shaken Ukrainian society, and we will watch video teasers of an art project at the intersection between documentation and artistic reflection. The panel will also feature the viewing of a teaser of the documentary film by Andrii Lysetskyi under the working title Blessed.

Speakers:
Larysa Denysenko, writer, lawyer, human rights activist, TV presenter, radio presenter, member of PEN Ukraine; Mykhailo Alekseienko, artist, initiator and organizer of the Gallery 14 project; Dr Olga Balashova, art critic, PhD in Philosophy, curator of the Ukrainian Museum of Contemporary Art/UMCA

Moderator: Oksana Dovgopolova

The curator is an intermediary between artists, their works, and the audience. How did the curators’ messages change after February 24, 2022? How did they transform during the full-scale invasion inside and outside of Ukraine?

Speakers:
Yuliya Vaganova, cultural manager, Director of the Khanenko Museum; Pavlo Hudimov, curator, founder of the art centre Ya Gallery; Aliona Karavai, co-founder of NGO Insha Osvita, Carpathian art residency Khata-Maisternia, Asortymentna Kimnata Gallery, and post impreza media about art; Kateryna Semenyuk, curator, cultural manager, co-founder of the memory  culture platform Past / Future / Art; Borys Filonenko, curator, art critic, editor-in-chief of ist publishing

Moderator: Halyna Hleba