Lecture by Kateryna Iakovlenko titled "What Are Stories Made Of?"

On September 20 at 15:00, Artsvit Gallery will host Kateryna Iakovlenko's lecture "What Are Stories Made Of? On How Museums Preserve and Manipulate Debris, Fragments, and Ruins of War."

This is the first lecture within the program "Ukrainian Art: Decolonizing the Gaze." It will focus on the role of museums—how some museums preserve memory, while others take an active part in colonialism and are complicit in the destruction of cultures.

During the war, Ukrainian institutions collect debris and fragments that preserve the memory of what these objects and intangible things were like before their destruction. Why does this happen, and what is the power of such a fragment? What do cobblestones made of horse teeth, a shrapnel fragment in a soldier's body, and the remnants of the Mariupol Drama Theater chandelier have in common?

Artifacts and evidence of war within museum walls are the central theme of the lecture discussion.

Kateryna Iakovlenko is a Ukrainian writer, visual culture researcher, and curator who studies the impact of war on art and memory. In her practice, Kateryna transforms archival and documentary materials about war into exhibitions, non-fiction essays, and librettos that open up new perspectives for understanding traumatic experiences.

Free admission with registration.

The program is part of the "Additional Education" program implemented with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation. All materials of the program represent the position of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the International Renaissance Foundation.