Ukrainian culture: how to reassemble a broken picture - with Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta

·46 min·4 clips

Olesya Ostrovska-Liuta explains why her generation is the first in Ukraine to inherit material possessions like Soviet flats and crystal vases.

The episode begins with host Tetyana Oharkova introducing the topic of Ukrainian cultural heritage and its reconstruction. Guest Olesya Ostrovska-Liuta, a prominent art manager, starts by reflecting on her generation as the first in Ukraine to materially inherit possessions like Soviet-era flats and crystal vases, contrasting with previous generations who were dispossessed. She notes this brief period of inheritance ended with Russia's full-scale invasion, which destroyed cities and wealth. The discussion then shifts to how Ukrainian heritage is often pieced together from fragments, using the example of Boychukism, an early 20th-century art movement whose artists were executed and artworks destroyed, leaving only sketches and photos. Olesya compares this to restoring a mosaic with empty pieces. The host brings up Alla Horska, whose mosaics in eastern Ukraine were recently destroyed by the Russian army, highlighting the ongoing destruction. They discuss working with unrealized ideas, like Horska's proposed stained glass for Kyiv University. Olesya explains the volatility of the late Soviet period, citing poet Vasyl Stus, who died in 1985, and how the art scene was traumatized, leading to a disconnection from recent decades. The conversation turns to why there is renewed interest in Ukrainian heritage, linking it to Russian aggression and a desire to understand erased history, such as the Executed Renaissance of the 1920s. Olesya suggests contemporary art is less popular because it requires more skill to understand, while past culture offers escapism from war realities, like the bombing in Ternopil. They explore the role of cultural institutions during war, with museums evacuating collections and hosting contemporary exhibits instead. Olesya outlines four missions for these institutions: preserving heritage and living artists, being a Ukrainian voice globally, reflecting on the human condition in war, and providing emotional support through shared space. Examples include the Art Arsenal's 2022 discussion panel "Our Great Movement" and the Hanenko Art Museum's contemporary exhibition "Meanwhile in the Hanenko House." The episode concludes by discussing memory as a form of inheritance and the delicate balance between cultural production and acknowledging war's harsh realities.

As heard by us

A measured account of Ukrainian culture as fragile reconstruction after repression, rupture, and war.

Ukrainian cultural heritage is framed as a reconstruction project: a damaged mosaic pieced together from destruction, forgetting, obscured memory, and the institutions that keep difficult histories in view.

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Why you'd press play

Follow Ukrainian cultural heritage as a lost mosaic, from Vasil Stus's dissident life and death to a provocative 1989 exhibition in a Lenin Museum.

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