With: Vasyl Cherepanyn, Yevheniia Moliar, Yuriy Hrytsyna, Franziska Davies, Shahin Zarinbal

Moderation: Nina Franz

In Ukraine, Russia’s invasion has spurred a profound new wave of investigative, research-driven, and documentary practices. Stemming from the visual and discursive programs of the 2024 Kyiv Biennial in Berlin, a new publication brings together a selection of these approaches.

In texts that grapple with survival environments, the destruction of architectural heritage, and the mass psychopolitical devastation suffered by Ukrainian society, the publication sheds light on the brutal realities of a neocolonial war of extermination and exploitation. It amplifies urgent calls for decolonization, bears witness to war zone atrocities, and highlights acts of refuge and solidarity. Contributions from researchers, artists, journalists, and activists—from Ukraine and beyond—ask a vital question: how can artistic creation, critical inquiry, and social engagement converge to forge a radically different future?

On occasion of the book launch, culture and media scholar Nina Franz discusses this question and others with the authors Yevheniia Moliar, Yuriy Hrytsyna, Franziska Davies and Shahin Zarinbal, and the editor and artistic director Vasyl Cherepanyn.

Vasyl Cherepanyn is head of the Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC), the institutional organizer of the Kyiv Biennial, and is a curator, writer, and editor.

Franziska Davies is a historian of East and East Central Europe at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.

Yuriy Hrytsyna is a Ukrainian documentary filmmaker, photographer, film critic, and medical doctor.

Yevheniia Moliar is an art historian working on the cultural heritage of the Soviet period, in particular monumental art, and a member of the self-organized initiative DE NE DE.

Shahin Zarinbal is a curator running Shahin Zarinbal gallery for international contemporary art.

Nina Franz works as a lecturer in cultural theory and media studies at Braunschweig University of the Arts. Her research focuses on the history of military imaging. 

Society of the Frontline: A Guidebook of Kyiv Perennial

Gesellschaft der Front: Ein Guidebook zur Kyiv Perenniale

Reversible book with thread binding, Softcover, 13 x 21 cm, 416 pages, 2-color, 6 images in color
Languages: English, German
Price: 18,00 € (member’s price: 9,00 €), ISBN: 978-3-949969-02-7 

Eds.: Vasyl Cherepanyn, VCRC (Visual Culture Research Center), nGbK, Berlin

With contributions by: Vasyl Cherepanyn, Timothy Snyder, Jan Tomasz Gross, Nataliya Gumenyuk, Ksenia Rybak, Svitlana Matviyenko, Kateryna Iakovlenko, Angelika Ustymenko, Alex King, Yuriy Hrytsyna, Yevheniia Moliar, Franziska Davies, Epp Annus, Yassin al-Haj Saleh, Yurko Prokhasko, Beatrice Patsalides Hofmann, Lena Prents, Felix Ackermann,
as well as Poster project statements by Wolfgang Tillmans / Shahin Zarinbal, Uliana Bychenkova, Experimental Jetset, Marina Naprushkina, Aliona Solomadina and Pavel Brăila.

Graphic design: Uliana Bychenkova
Cover: Stefaniia Bodnia