SONIAKH invites you to the conference After Donbas, dedicated to the preservation, research, and representation of contemporary art and culture of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions held at The National Art Museum of Ukraine. The conference will focus on artistic, curatorial, and museum practices, as well as cultural institutions and communities deeply connected to the region and forced into displacement due to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

The preposition after does not imply an end but rather captures a state of uncertain duration in which the region, its culture, and artistic communities continue to exist after the war began. It is not only about territorial loss or its threat but also about the transformations experienced by those living in the moment of after, pointing to a new cultural condition—or an emptiness that, like a coal deposit exhausted by extraction, has emerged alongside the Russian occupation. What does the body of artworks created before and after 2014 tell us about the situation we find ourselves in today?

The conference will bring together curators, researchers, artists, and museum professionals working with the culture of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions to address key issues of its preservation, research, and representation.

Working language: Ukrainian. Register via the link.

Key Topics:

– Decolonizing Art Theory and History: Challenges in engaging Western epistemologies with decolonial thought, phenomeno- and geography-centered approaches. Rethinking national and regional histories, the post-Soviet legacy, and the role of Eastern Ukrainian art in the global context of war.
– Museums in Wartime: Challenges of preservation, working with collections, and documenting war; new approaches to the activities of displaced museums and their role in the region’s recovery.
– Self-organization in Art and Communities: Supporting artistic initiatives through self-organization, creating new platforms for collaboration, and informal practices beyond institutions.
– Aesthetic Image of the Region and Stigma in Art: Changes in perceptions of aesthetics under the influence of war; visualizing trauma, destruction, displacement, and resistance in artistic practices. The Ukrainian Donbas as a space of loss, periphery, industry, and war.

The conference will include networking and an exhibition tour on March 23, panel discussions on March 24, 2025, at NAMU (6 Hrushevskyi St.), and a closing discussion on March 25 at PinchukArtCentre (1-3 Velyka Vasylkivska St.). The full program will be sent after registration.This project is implemented with the support of the Art Platform of the Ukrainian-Danish Youth House. Partners: National Art Museum of Ukraine, PinchukArtCentre, Lysychansk Youth Community NGO, IZOLYATSIA Foundation. Media partners: Artslooker, SONIAKH.

Organizing Committee of the Conference: Andrii Borutia, Yevheniia Butsykina, Olha Honchar, Vitalii Matukhno, Milena Khomchenko, Dmytro Chepurnyi

For inquiries, please contact: dc120320@gmail.com, Dmytro Chepurnyi, Programme Curator.