“Ukrainian Museology of wartime: learned how to work and not just survive in war conditions, armed ourselves with the generators, fuel, firewood, power banks, and Starlinks before the winter. We are learning how to cope with the new social function of the museum - how to preserve the memory and family relics, organize memorial events that are painful, how to work with the families that had lost their close ones and provide inclusion. Sometimes to be therapists.  To work in the face of total budget cuts for the institutions and the team maintenance. To remain true to the profession." - Olha Honchar. 

Moderaator Olha Honchar, Forum curator. director of the Territory of Teror Museum

Languages: Ukrainian and Polish with the simultaneous translation. 

Participants: 

• Milena Chorna, National Museum of Ukraine History during WWII (Kyiv)
• Dr Paulina Florjanowicz, Director of the National Institute of Museums in Poland (Warsaw)
• dr Katarzyna Góralczyk, director of the Institute of Heritage Security (Krakow)
• Olha Honchar, director of Territory of Terror Museum, initiator of Museum Crisis Center creation, co-founder of the New Museum NGO and the Cultural Heritage Foundation of Ukraine (Lviv);
• Evgenia Kalugina, director of Sloviansk Museum of Local Lore (evacuated), 
• Ivanna Kyliushyk,  Coordinator of the Ukrainian House Meeting Center (Warsaw); 
• Olesia Milovanova, director of Luhansk Region Museum of Local Lore (evacuated twice Luhansk - Starobilsk - Lviv) 
• ​Liudmyla Mishchenko, director of Okhtyrka Museum of Local Lore (Okhtyrka)
• Yuliya Pischanska, director of Dmytro Yavornytsky National Historical Museum of Dnipro (Dnipro)
• dr Piotr Rypson, Chairman of the Polish National Committee of the International Council of Museums ICOM Poland;
• Olha Salo, Deputy Director General of the National Museum of the Revolution of Dignity (Kyiv), project coordinator of the Center for the Rescue of Cultural Heritage (Kyiv);
• Olha Soshnikova, director of M. F. Sumtsov Kharkiv Historical Museum (Kharkiv) 
• dr hab. Marta Szuniewicz-Stępień, profesor of Naval Academy of the Heroes of Westerplatte, Department of Command and Naval Operations.

Article about the Forum on UP:Life by Olha Honchar: https://life.pravda.com.ua/columns/2023/11/20/257808/



The project was implemented as a part of Kyiv Biennial 2023. Kyiv Biennial is an international forum for art, knowledge, and politics that integrates exhibitions and discussion platforms. It adopts an interdisciplinary perspective at the intersection of the humanities, socially engaged art, and political activism in order to reflect on the crucial issues of the contemporary world. Kyiv Biennial is organized by the Visual Culture Research Center.

Kyiv Biennial 2023 is held in cooperation and with the support of: Assortment Room, Residence "Sorry, no rooms available", Department of Culture Vienna, Institute of Human Sciences (IWM), Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, Museum Crisis Center, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, National Oleksandr Dovzhenko Center, Federal Ministry of Arts, Ars Electronica, ERSTE Foundation, Foundation for Arts Initiatives, Galeria Labirynt, Goethe-Institut, Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, L'Internationale, and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Social Affairs and Sport, M HKA (Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp), MuseumsQuartier Wien, mumok, Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Other Edges project (hablarenarte, KAIR, MeetFactory, Center for Visual Culture), Sigrid Rausing Trust, tranzit. at, tranzit.org (Bratislava, Budapest, Bucharest, Vienna, Cluj, Prague, Jassy) and the European Union's Creative Europe program.

Event partners:  L'Internationale, ICOM Polska



Cof-financed by the European Union 

Funded by EU funds. The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author or authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.