Driven from their homes by a sudden and bloody war, young Ukrainians are fighting to preserve their culture.
In the German capital, where an international art scene is thriving, Ukrainians are resisting Russia’s attempt to wipe their culture off the map by establishing safe spaces for Ukrainian cultural expression.
Eva Yakubovska, an activist with the Ukrainian advocacy organization Vitsche, and Alina Danylova, who helps run the Hotel Continental – Art Space in Exile, are just two of the Ukrainians working to preserve their culture in Berlin. They demonstrate how the existential threat their country faces has fueled Ukrainian cultural expression in the art-centric city.
Berlin as a shelter for Ukrainian culture
Hotel Continental was a place in Mariupol where young artists could thrive, described Danylova, who previously worked in the center for the Kyiv-based multidisciplinary festival GogolFest. Yet, this creative flourishing ended when Russian bombs destroyed the building in April 2022.
Russia has continued to target Ukrainian cultural institutions since it began its unprovoked invasion on February 24, 2022. But along with the attacks came the urge to protect and defend Ukrainian heritage.
When the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, German theater director Christine Dissmann wanted to “support in a small cultural way” a country with which she had professional and personal ties.
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the demolished art center reappeared in Berlin’s Alt-Treptow district when Dissmann launched the art space in exile. She named it Hotel Continental in honor of the lost building in Mariupol.
Beginning from scratch in June 2022, diligent Ukrainian Berliners shaped the project alongside Dissmann.
The war is “very much also against Ukrainian culture, and we need a place to preserve it,” Dissmann explained.
While Dissmann knows she can’t save every piece of Ukrainian art the Russians have destroyed. Nevertheless, preservation lies at the heart of the endeavor. Numerous Ukrainians in Berlin and their supporters share this ambition. Danylova got involved because she and Dissmann knew each other before the war. She trusted that together, they could rebuild her former workplace’s legacy.
“Who – If Not Us?” asked an exhibit at the Hotel Continental several months ago.
That question is “on the table of every Ukrainian artist,” Danylova said. She believes Ukrainian artists must work to keep the world’s attention on the war. That way they resist Russia’s attempt to destroy Ukrainian culture.
Otherwise, she said, “we can be just erased from the map.”
Amplifying Ukrainian culture abroad
The advocacy group Vitsche is another Berlin institution that sprang up amid the war to preserve Ukrainian culture in exile. The organization targets decision-makers with campaigns and produces innovative forms of cultural diplomacy, such as concerts and music festivals.
Vitsche emphasizes the importance of Ukrainian arts production “being seen abroad,” explained cultural manager Yakubovska. Ukrainians are realizing this work of amplification as Russia tries to overshadow their national identity.
Berlin, home to a cosmopolitan audience ready to embrace cultural discoveries, was the perfect place to promote the work of Ukrainian artists. Bars like Space Meduza offer a physical space in Berlin to showcase Ukrainian-made art.
In the Western Ukrainian city of Lviv in 2022, twenty-five street artists from Ukraine’s twenty-five regions decorated a shopping mall with their vision for Ukraine’s victory. The United by Victories exhibition traveled around the country. Then, when the curators decided to bring copies of the mural to an international audience, Berlin’s Space Meduza welcomed it.
Transcending war and showcasing diversity
War today is an omnipresent topic. Yet Ukrainian artists go far beyond representations of pain in their work.
“It’s not always just about the war. It’s sometimes just showcasing good Ukrainian work,” said Dissmann.
Some Ukrainian Berliners have also used these new cultural projects to showcase Ukraine’s diversity. Yakubovska, for example, wants to spotlight how Roma, Crimean Tatar, and other ethnic and racial minorities are also a part of Ukrainian culture.
When they recently performed a genre-blending hip-hop production in Berlin’s Plötzensee for the sixth Vitsche-organized Ukrainian Sound Garden, the three Fo Sho sisters faced one question over and over again: “Are you really Ukrainians?”
The sisters are Black Kharkivians with Ethiopian and Jewish roots. They understand their role in challenging preconceived ideas about Ukrainian identity and, as they put it, showing “that Ukraine is diverse.”
Blending art and activism
Berlin is a fertile ground for artistic expression where many of today’s war refugees converge.
The city and its world-renowned techno scene also witnessed the emergence of Bass Resistance, an artist collective on a mission. They aim to share the “energy of the present-day Ukrainian rave.” But the collective also never misses a chance to raise funds for humanitarian causes with its rousing beats, blending artistic expression with fundraising.
The recent “Who—If Not Us?” event at Hotel Continental also exhibited homemade pieces by community associations that support Ukraine.
Atypical exhibitors from the humanitarian organization Berlin to Borders or the Monday Kitchen Ukrainian cooking community could simultaneously showcase their art and activism.
For example, a model polling station at the exhibit’s window showcases a mock referendum to replace Berlin’s Russisches Haus der Wissenschaft und Kultur (Russian House of Science and Culture) with a Ukrainian cultural palace. The Vitsche-designed piece was originally a tongue-in-cheek response to Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukrainian territories with so-called referenda. But it quickly evolved into a social movement with concrete demands.
Facing pressures, a combative self-assertion
Since the outbreak of Russia’s war, the Moscow-monitored Russian House has been a center of propaganda supporting Russia’s justifications for war and attempting to cast doubt on Ukrainian identity.
Determined to fight back against Russia’s imperialist conceptions of Ukraine, activists in Berlin have started speaking out against this hub of Russian imperialism. Activists from Vitsche, together with Georgian, Moldovan, Chechen, and Syrians, are calling for the Russian House to be converted into a Decolonial House. The idea is to provide space for countries “colonized by contemporary Russia,” explains Yakubovska.
She envisions the building’s transformation as an example of transitional justice that would benefit countries that Russia has previously colonized. The group is optimistic that they can sway public opinion through media-savvy initiatives, sticker campaigns, and support from the lawyers involved in the case.
“I think it’s realistic because I believe in the power of people,” Yakubovska said.
Throughout Berlin, the Vitsche activists and other Ukrainians vocally condemn instances when their voices are silenced or appropriated.
Since February 24, 2022, more people understand that Ukraine has an independent culture. Nevertheless, Yakubovska argues that some Berlin cultural institutions prioritize Russian voices over Ukrainians in their discussions about the war. Ukrainian culture is sometimes still marginalized compared to that of its larger neighbor.
“You can see how Ukrainian art is perceived as some school drama scene for the backstages,” Yakubovska said.
Berlin’s Ukrainian community plans to continue working to keep Ukraine’s cultural frontlines open. Once a door to the Soviet empire, Berlin now visibly showcases Ukrainian cultural identity on its streets. Betty from the music group Fo Sho sees herself and other artists like her as part of a “progressive young generation” of Ukrainians. In this city, that generation is building its homeland’s tomorrow.
About the author
Paul Mazet is a French freelance journalist based in Berlin, where he reports on the local impacts of international developments. He studied history, international relations, and social sciences in Toulouse, Glasgow, Paris, Dublin, and Berlin.
