Tactful Commemoration, Artistic Documentation, and the Social Archive of Heritage. Workshop by Culture Helps Solidarity / Культура допомагає: Солідарність
Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine has created new challenges in the way society works with memory, testimony, and lived wartime experience. The stories of servicewomen, women veterans, families of the fallen, and people who have experienced loss, captivity, injury,
displacement, or reintegration already form a living archive of contemporary Ukrainian history. The way these stories are collected, interpreted, documented, and represented directly shapes the country’s memory culture, public understanding of war, and the dignity of
those who carry these experiences.
The VETERANKA Movement is initiating this workshop as part of Culture Helps Solidarity / Культура допомагає: Солідарність programme as a professional space dedicated to ethical, trauma-informed, and interdisciplinary approaches to testimony work, artistic documentation, and the development of a social archive of war. The event will bring together experts in human rights, memory culture, art, and strategic communications to share methodologies, practical tools, and real-life case studies for working with sensitive personal narratives.
Speakers:
- Kateryna Demerza — philosopher, translator, Head of Communications at the VETERANKA Movement.
- Larysa Denysenko — Ukrainian lawyer, human rights advocate, writer, women’s rights activist, and board member of JurFem.
- Kateryna Semeniuk — cultural manager, curator, co-founder of the Past / Future / Art platform, and Head of the NGO Cultural Practices.
- Marta Syrko — Ukrainian artist and photographer, featured in Forbes’ “10 Women Preserving And Shaping Ukrainian Art And Culture”.
Programme
15:00–15:10
Opening Remarks
Kateryna Demerza
15:10–16:00
Trauma-Informed and Ethical Principles for Collecting Testimonies and Personal Stories
Larysa Denysenko
16:00–17:00
How Art Engages with Memory Today: New Approaches, Forms, and Boundaries
Kateryna Semeniuk
17:00–17:40
Artist’s Case Study: Ethical Engagement with Experiences of Loss and War
Marta Syrko
17:40–18:00
Stories of Women Veterans: How to Collect, Process, and Present Them with Respect for Lived Experience
Kateryna Demerza
When: 23 June, 15:00–18:00
Where: online
Register via link.
The “Culture Helps Solidarity / Культура допомагає: Солідарність” is a project co-funded by the EU Creative Europe Programme and implemented by the European Cultural Foundation (NL), Insha Osvita (UA), zusa (DE) and VETERANKA Movement (UA).
