Well-intentioned appeals from the collective West to encourage cultural dialogue between victim and aggressor reflect existing power structures. Reconciliation cannot be imposed from outside, Kateryna Botanova explains in Gagarin, the Eurozine podcast.
Ukrainian artists are pressured by their international peers who still entertain the naive idea that the purpose of culture is reconciliation.
They have to push back against these initiatives, but walk a tightrope as they need to nevertheless keep western attention, says Kiyv-born curator and art historian Kateryna Botanova, who is also a recurring Eurozine author.
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Read Kateryna Botanova’s articles in Eurozine, including the two she discusses in this episode.
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