Ukraine

 Portrait of Nikita Kadan. Photo: Klaus Pichler, © mumok

Portrait of Nikita Kadan. Photo: Klaus Pichler, © mumok

The Ukrainian artist Nikita Kadan moved into a bunker at the war's beginning. There, he spoke to Hans Ulrich Obrist and Sebastian Clark about how the past remains in the subjunctive and why we need a new anti-fascism.

 Vlada Ralko,  The Dove Makes Peace  (2022)

Vlada Ralko, The Dove Makes Peace (2022)

What happens when propaganda pushes post-truth directly onto the battlefield? Milena Khomchenko, a writer from Kyiv, reflects on the “informational front” of the war in Ukraine.

 Collage by Lina Romanukha (2022)

Lina Romanukha, The Motherland Power (2014). Collage on paper

Lina Romanukha, a curator and cultural worker from Kyiv, Ukraine, shares diary entries from her daily life during the early days of war.

 Henryk Streng/ Marek Włodarski, Childhood Memories (1924). Henryk Streng was born in Lwów, Poland (present-day Lviv, Ukraine) in 1903. In 1942 he destroyed all of his documents and acquired new papers under the name of “Marek Włodarski.”

Henryk Streng/Marek Włodarski, Childhood Memories (1924). Henryk Streng was born in Lwów, Poland (present-day Lviv, Ukraine) in 1903. In 1942 he destroyed all of his documents and acquired new papers under the name of “Marek Włodarski.”

Dean Kissick corresponds with two young arts workers from Ukraine, who share firsthand accounts of the war that is currently unfolding.

 Calla Henkel & Max Pitegoff,  Paradise  (2020–)

Calla Henkel & Max Pitegoff, Paradise (2020–). All photos: Maksym Biilousov, PinchukArtCentre 2021

Not another article about Kyiv as the new Berlin! On the occasion of the Future Generation Art Prize, Alexander Scrimgeour wonders about how the twentieth-century phenomenon of international contemporary art changes under the pressure of good old-fashioned geopolitics.

 "Freedom is our religion" hoarding/billboard on Kyiv's Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) 

Hoarding on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) 

Spike editor Alexander Scrimgeour visits Kyiv, capital of a nation working through its recent past, and tries make sense of its complicated present – through contemporary art.