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In the Eye of the Storm: Ukraine's Cultural Heritage vs. Russian Imperialism
07 October 2024, 6:00 pm–8:00 pm
A Rethinking Eastern Europe and Eurasia seminar with Dr Katia Denysova
This event is free.
Event Information
Open to
- All
Availability
- Yes
Cost
- Free
Organiser
-
SSEES
Location
-
Masaryk roomUCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies16 Taviton streetLondonWC1H 0BW
How did it happen that the art of Ukraine became absent from the annals of art history, and the country’s culture turned into a blindspot? Analysing the 20th-century exhibition history, this talk explores how different iterations of the Russian state cultivated the idea of ‘great Russian culture’ internationally at the expense of other nations, long subjugated and overshadowed by multiple guises of Russian imperialism. We will also discuss the role of cultural diplomacy and how such projects as 'In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine' can help reclaim names and events for Ukraine’s cultural heritage, reassess the existing art historical canon, expose and redress institutional biases, and engender long-term epistemic reparations. At the same time, the talk will address the need to embrace the multiethnic, multicultural, and multilingual milieus within which the artists from Ukraine had historically operated.
Image credit: Davyd Burliuk, Carousel, 1921, National Art Museum of Ukraine © The Burliuk Foundation
About the Speaker
Dr Katia Denysova
is an art historian and curator, specialising in Ukraine’s art of the early twentieth century. She completed her PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London in 2024 and is currently a research fellow at the University of Tübingen in Germany. Katia is the co-curator of the travelling exhibition In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine (winner of the 2023 Apollo Exhibition of the Year Award for the show at Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid) and the co-editor of the accompanying catalogue (Thames & Hudson, 2022). Her writing and commentary on the art of Ukraine have appeared in Critique d’Art, Arts, Oxford Grove Dictionary of Art, The Week in Art podcast, and BBC Radio 4 Front Row, among others.