Presentation by the De Ne De artistic initiative with Yevheniia Moliar, Liubov Malikova, Nataliya Diachenko, and Vova Vorotniov

The self-organized artistic initiative De Ne De unites artists, musicians, architects and historians around the idea of preserving an obscure and non-obvious cultural heritage. De Ne De explores cultural change caused by ideological shifts, particularly the processes of decolonization and decommunization. The name De Ne De is a play on words, variably recombining decommunization, deconstruction, decolonization, de-ideologization – all terms that are constantly present in the discourse of the initiative’s practice. Literally, it can be translated as “somewhere,” which also directly reflects the group’s main activity – research and search expeditions. Since 2015, De Ne De has traveled all over Ukraine looking for unique disappearing cultural heritage, studying the exhibitions of regional museums, abandoned Soviet buildings, monuments, and mosaics. These expeditions are titled “Люби та знай свій рідний край / Love and Know Your Native Land,” a typical title of school essays written in Ukrainian schools, usually describing stereotypical features of homeland. This is also the title used to publish the group’s non-obvious findings, which are also a significant part of Ukrainian identity. Participants of De Ne De will present a selection of photo and video documentation of their expeditions and give visitors the opportunity to make their own souvenir print with original ornaments of the disappearing Ukrainian Soviet cultural heritage.

Note on the print workshop: Visitors should bring their own items of cloth on which to print fragments of Ukrainian Soviet monumental heritage.

Nataliya Diachenko (born 1988 in Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi, Ukraine) is a photo- and videographer currently based in Kyiv. A member of De Ne De art initiative and co-founder of the NGO Museum is Open for Renovation, her works have been exhibited in Ukraine, Portugal, Austria, Germany, Poland, and Sweden.

Yevheniia Moliar is an art historian working on the cultural heritage of the Soviet period, in particular monumental art. She studied at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv and curated the project SOVIET MOSAICS IN UKRAINE. As a member of the self-organized initiative De Ne De, she has studied and preserved unrecognized and unobvious cultural heritage in Ukraine. She is a research assistant at the Institute for Urban and Regional Planning, Department of Monument Conservation and Urban Cultural Heritage at the Technical University Berlin.

Liubov Malikova (born 1985) is an artist, designer, and activist based in Kyiv, Ukraine. She is a co-founder of the DIS/ORDER collective and a member of De Ne De initiative. She has been a nominee, winner, and participant in several local and international contests and trade shows in art and fashion design. Her work has been exhibited, represented, and published in Ukraine, UK, Poland, and Germany.

Vova Vorotniov (born 1979 in Chervonohrad) is an artist experimenting with the language of graffiti and vandalism, searching for the borders between art and non-art. Based on a theoretical background, he juggles the images of world culture in his work, creating apt, sarcastic and topical statements.