After the Russian attack on Kiev, Ukraine, image source: Associated Press
In the early morning of February 24, local time, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the launch of a "special military operation" in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, according to the Russian news agency, Russia will strive to achieve the demilitarization of Ukraine. After months of confrontation, war broke out on the Russian-Ukrainian front. According to Ukrainian media reports, missiles were struck at the military command centers in the capital Kiev and the northeastern city of Kharkiv, while Russian troops landed in the southern port cities of Odessa and Mariupol, and another Russian offensive site was the Black Sea coastal city of Kherson north of Crimea. That night, the Russian army occupied the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the surrounding area, and then advanced in the direction of Kiev, and the conflict in many places continued.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gives a video address in Kiev, Image source: Ukrainian Presidential Office News
Ukrainian troops fought back on multiple fronts. In a Feb. 25 video address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 137 soldiers and civilians had been killed and hundreds more wounded. U.S. President Joe Biden spoke about the situation in Ukraine, saying that "now the relationship between the United States and Russia has completely broken down" and will unite allies to impose a number of sanctions on Russia, such as export controls. Both the British prime minister and the European Council have announced that sanctions will be imposed on Russia.
In Moscow, police detained a woman in an operation against Russia's attack on Ukraine, Photo: Associated Press
On 24 February, The International Council of Museums (ICOM) paid particular attention to the risks faced by museum professionals after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the threats to cultural heritage as a result of the armed conflict. ICOM invites members of civil society to reach out to local museums and, where possible, assist them in adopting ways and means to preserve their buildings and collections. In addition, ICOM warns all parties involved to remain vigilant about the potential increase in the smuggling of cultural materials from the region. The International Council of Museums will continue to provide support within its capacity to mitigate any potential threats that Ukraine's heritage may face in the uncertain days to come.
Previously, as tensions with Russia continued to escalate, museum staff in Ukraine anxiously awaited news that some institutions close to potential front lines had been living in chaos. Oleksandra Kovalchuk, acting director of the Odessa Fine Arts Museum, elaborated on how the agency is responding to the current threat in a Facebook post last month. This Ukrainian Black Sea port city, easily accessible to the Russian Navy, is also very close to the Transnistrian region, a pro-Russian region of neighboring Moldova.
The Odessa Museum of Fine Arts hangs the Ukrainian flag, Image source: ? Oleksandra Kovalchuk/Facebook
While Odessa is a predominantly Russian-speaking city, Kovachuk said "external threats are putting the Odessa Art Museum in a difficult position," and the museum staff quickly switched to Ukrainian for correspondence. "Who knew that the fifteen thousand soldiers on our national border/had a greater impact on language than the law?" Kovachuk said the museum had evaluated its security system and "closed all the loopholes we noticed." She thanked the police for their "concern for the museum and their responsibility for the safety of museums and collections."
The flag of Ukraine has been added to all publications of the museum and placed at the entrance of the museum, where the museum's logo is now also the color of the country. "Perhaps some people think that museums should now stay away from politics," Kovachuk wrote, "and with all my expertise, I would like to assure you that this is not the case." Throughout history, art has been, and remains, part of politics and inextricably linked to public life. Kovachuk, who was elected to the Odessa City Council in 2020, also highlighted the role of art in calming people's nerves. She stipulated that the museum would open for free on Feb. 20 to help "de-stress."
The second generation of KSOP members named their union the Gosprom Group in honor of this historic building in Kharkiv, Credit: Sergiy Bobok
Sergiy Lebedynskyy, head of the Kharkiv School of Photography, told Art News via email: "We still can't believe that something like this is happening in Europe. This is very sad and worrying. Launched in 2018, the museum showcases the work of pioneering Photographers of the Soviet era stationed in the region, including internationally renowned Boris Mikhailov. In 2021, it is one of the donors to the collection of Ukrainian art in the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
"Kharkiv is the second largest city in Ukraine, only 40 kilometers from the Russian border," Repinsky said: "In the event of an invasion, it is almost impossible to evacuate the city quickly, because unfortunately, the road system between the cities is not prepared and collapses in the event of an event such as a large-scale evacuation." Since the museum's archival facilities are not yet complete, a large part of the collection is stored in Germany, which is [fortunate] at this time", while the Ukrainian works "can be evacuated with a few trucks", he adds. "Just yesterday, we completed the installation of the lighting system for the exhibition space. It's a little strange to work according to future plans, knowing that everything could collapse at any moment. ”
Mystetskyi Arsenal in Kiev
Olesia strovska-Liuta is the curator of the Mystetskyi Arsenal of the Kiev Ordnance Plant, a complex in a historic building near the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra World Heritage Site. "There are multiple threats, and we don't know which one will happen, from power outages and lack of connectivity to full-blown intrusions," she said. So we try to prepare for as many situations as possible. ”
Lluta said her team "will act in accordance with the recommendations of the ICCROM (International Centre for the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Property) and our own follow-up contingency plan". At the same time, "if these threats do not occur for the time being", the ordnance factory is ready to "continue our programme of activities this year". At the upcoming event, she said, there was a Zoom presentation from a catalogue of contemporary art exhibitions from Belarus, a country that is "under the worst pressures of a dictatorship in our region." Under the regime of Aleksander ukashenko, many Belarusian culturals took refuge in Ukraine to avoid the threat of arrest. Ostrovska Lyuta said: "There is a sad joke in the Ukrainian cultural community, and now there is nothing more curative than writing a grant proposal. ”
In 2014, Russia annexed large swaths of eastern Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula, a move that Western countries quickly condemned and imposed economic sanctions to deter further aggression. It also sparked an international deadlock in museums and a court battle over Scythian artifacts lent to the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam. The case is currently being filed with the Dutch Supreme Court in The Hague. Since then, cultural institutions have been embroiled in disputes. In the country's already troubled cultural sphere, boycott has become a tool for Western curators and institutions to focus on growing tensions in Ukraine.
For nearly eight years, as the two countries teetered on the brink of war, the United States and Britain announced that they would impose new sanctions on Russia after Moscow recognized Luhansk and Donetsk — two rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine — as independent regions and sent troops there.
"Many of us have been feeling very isolated for a while," said Ekaterina Iragui, a gallery owner in Moscow, whose situation has become increasingly bleak, "and it's all very frustrating, especially for the Ukrainian people." But, she said, "it's very short-sighted to connect the entire Russian art scene to what the government does." ”
Chto Delat, The excluded (2014), Image credit: Artist? Chto Delat
Dmitry Vilensky, a member of the Russian art group Chto Delat, said many Russians already felt a sense of exclusion and disillusionment, adding that Eastern Europe is experiencing marginalization by major international and events, and this year's Documenta in Kassel (June 18-September 25). "There seems to already be an unwritten resistance, not just a gross lack of presence on the international stage for Russian artists – Eastern European [artists]."
Art as a healer: A satirical poster of the Moscow gallery Spas Setun, founded in 2021, Image: Spas Setun Gallery
Anton Svyatsky, managing partner of the Fragment Gallery in Moscow and New York, notes that "in the last decade, not a single Russian art gallery has been exhibiting at Art Basel [Switzerland]," and on the gallery page of Art Basel, Moscow is not even listed as a city. Regina Gallery from Moscow took part in Art Basel in 2011 and 2012. "Most of the major institutions and media do not provide visibility to artists from the former Soviet Bloc, and the current geopolitics makes it very difficult for cultural practitioners in these countries to reach Western institutions," Sveatsky said. "