1. Why now?

2. Who is it for?

3. What it will be like?

4. What does the Lab’s theoretical (educational) section cover?

5. Educational program schedule

6. Speakers

7. What is the Lab’s practical section about?

8. Curators

9. Timeline

10. Organizers

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has brought about robust societal demand for memorialization, and it will only get stronger. Since the spring of 2022, discussions have been arising around numerous projects, from street renaming to ambitious memorials of national scale.

Building a national memorial is an endeavor only possible after the end of the war. Still, we firmly believe that now is the right time to start engaging with the memory of the tragic events, especially on the local level. Nowadays, many Ukrainians already feel the importance of honoring soldiers killed in action as well as memorializing events and personal experiences of the war in the public space. We respond to this demand instead of ignoring it.

In the first two years of the all-out war memorialization was a spontaneous grassroots practice. However, now more and more often people point out the need for a professional approach, i.e., organizing a community of people familiar with memory-related matters, conducting research, developing competitive selection procedures, building a framework for engaging with traumatic experiences and abiding by it, moving away from the Soviet memorialization language, fostering public dialogue with communities, and finding a means of reaching an agreement in the conflicts that arise due to controversial nature of some memorials.

We aim to change the principles of handling memorial projects in the following ways:

1. Having a public discussion is essential when it comes to visual solutions for commemorating tragic events, both in cases of concrete memorials and as it pertains to commemoration practices in general.
2. Projects must be thoroughly discussed by professionals and with the local community representatives before implementation.
3. Memorial project development is only possible when specialists in different disciplines are involved.

The Lab’s projects will be rooted in this logic, allowing us to evaluate and discuss the value of this approach before offering it to communities for further elaboration. The Lab aims to become a platform for establishing a professional community capable of tackling relevant memorial projects.

What is the importance of memorials today? How do they influence our lives and our future? What should they be like after February 24, 2022? We invite you to find the answers to these questions by working through specific ideas.

Above all, we extend our invitation to participate to visual artists and architects, but memory studies scholars, sociologists, designers, journalists, museum staff, philosophers, IT specialists, and generally anyone interested in engaging with the memorialization of the Russia–Ukraine War are all welcome to join.

The Lab participants will:

• get familiar with the basics of public history and memorialization;
• network, learn from one another, and collaborate with people who deal with the subject of the Russian–Ukrainian War in a variety of fields;
• join the community of professionals exploring collective memory through art;
• participate in interdisciplinary workshops discussing controversial cases of memory work;
• go on study tours to the Russia-Ukraine War sites;
• develop and present their own ideas for memorials for public discussion.

The Lab comprises two sections: theoretical, which encompasses educational meetings and workshops, and practical, which is devoted to creating memorial projects and their presentation. You can participate only in the theoretical section (online) or in both practical and theoretical parts (online and offline).

Please note that only applicants physically present in Ukraine can participate in the second (practical) phase of the Lab, as it involves mandatory expeditions to the Russia–Ukraine War sites.

The Lab’s first phase involves regular online meetings and workshops with specialists from various fields several times a month. During these, you can learn about how memory studies, public history, psychology, and international law engage with memory, learn about how international memorial competitions are organized, and work in interdisciplinary groups on problems provided by the Lab’s organizers.

Format: Online

During the Lab’s second phase, the participants will develop one of the cases for war commemoration in Ukraine provided by the organizers. Each case will be directly tied to a specific commemorative site, and the ideas will be elaborated in dialogue with the representatives of the local community.

The participants are expected to tackle the cases in interdisciplinary groups, but working on the project solo is also an option. Expeditions to memorialization sites, consultations, and supervision will be organized for the participants of the practical section.

Only the participants physically present in Ukraine can join the Lab’s second phase because of the expedition commitment. There is no way to participate in it remotely.

Opportunity to join the practical part will depend on the results of an interview with the Lab’s organizers.

Past / Future / Art is a memory culture platform established by the Cultural Practices NGO in Odesa, Ukraine, in 2019. It focuses on memorial, research, and art projects and develops strategies for commemorating significant phenomena of Ukrainian history, initiating public discussions to engage broader audiences in working through the past.

Museum of Contemporary Art NGO (MOCA NGO) is a non-profit organization aimed at creating a new type of professional contemporary art museum institution in Ukraine, serving as a crucial element in the advancement of the art ecosystem. Founded in 2020, the organization brings together and engages artists, cultural workers, and experts who work with contemporary art in Ukraine.

The Memorialization Practices Lab is supported by the Partnership Fund for a Resilient Ukraine (PFRU), funded by aid from the governments of Canada, Estonia, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Fund unites the Government of Ukraine with its closest international government partners to deliver projects in primarily liberated and frontline communities that strengthen Ukraine’s resilience against Russia’s war of aggression. PFRU aims to strengthen the Ukrainian government’s capacity and resilience to deliver essential support to local communities in collaboration with civil society, media, and the private sector.