Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shone the light on the ways the culture is employed in war and propaganda machines. It also sparked new discussion about the colonial ambition Russia has nurtured for centuries towards Ukraine and other countries around it. This paper focuses on ways Russia has appropriated Ukrainian art and culture, employing strategies of epistemic violence (sustaining that Ukrainians do not have anything of cultural value to share with the world). It also looks at the immediate solutions individual artists and institutions found to contrast the injustice. For instance, the Met’s decision to revise the description of Degas's painting “Russian Dancer”, giving it a correct ethnographic belonging — “Dancer in a Ukrainian Dress”. Conducting the series of interviews with contemporary Ukrainian artists and observing their current practice, the author describes the tools they employ to communicate the colonial nature of Russian aggression, as well as shed light on the contemporary Ukrainian art scene. Among the artists mentioned in the articles are Zhanna Kadyrova, Alevtina Kakhidze and Vlada Ralko. Although academic research on this particular topic is scarce, the discussion of the post-colonial strategies provides a good theoretical base. The article widely relies on thinkers and researchers like Vitaly Chernetsky, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and others, as well as conference events like “Are we Post-Colonial? Post-Soviet Space” (Washington DC, 2005).

Authors:
Valeria Radkevych, Università di Studi di Bologna, Italy

About the Presenter(s)
Valeriia Radkevych is an independent Ukrainian curator and researcher in arts and politics. Her current works engulf the ways Ukrainian art battles epistemic injustice, and how the war interferes with the artistic practices.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/valeria-radkevych-40b27060/

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