SAVA: From Energetic Colonialism to Nuclear Terrorism

In the early stages of Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Russian troops had occupied the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history, and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (Europe's largest), which remains Russia-occupied to this day. This marks a new development not only in terms of ways of war (never had a nuclear facility of this kind been occupied by an invading army before), but also in decades-long colonial tactic of weaponising energy resources - first by the USSR, then by the Russian Federation. This development also posits nuclear terror as an element of information warfare, with radiation as a global mass medium (Svitlana Matviyenko). This talk is based on our joint experience of travelling to and researching the Chornobyl Zone of Exclusion both before the Russian occupation and in its aftermath, and will include evidence collected during the documentation of this war crime (Chornobyl 22 documentary by Oleksiy Radynski).

The Socialist Anthropocene in the Visual Arts (SAVA) is a visual arts led interdisciplinary research project that challenges the West-centric discourses of the Anthropocene by asserting the constitutive role of the environmental histories of Socialism in the formation of the new geological age. Led by Dr. Maja Fowkes at UCL Institute of Advanced Studies, the project was selected for a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) and is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). www.sava.earth