Like so many good things about Ukrainian culture, the Kyiv Biennial was born out of the Maidan Revolution, the 2014 democratic uprising that ousted the country’s Kremlin-backed president. Maidan ushered in a nationwide cultural renewal, and Kyiv enjoyed an explosion of activity in art, fashion and, especially, electronic music. That decolonial approach to the Soviet past has taken on profound new importance during the full-scale war. As Russia continues its direct assault on Ukrainian cultural heritage, Ukrainian authorities are ripping down statues and sanding away murals. The 2023 Kyiv Biennial does not want to show its Viennese public a calamity taking place “elsewhere.” It wants to demonstrate that we are all already facing threats to a common democratic future — and it is too late to duck the fight.

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Persons: unloved, ” Cherepanyn, Steyerl, Wolfgang Tillmans Organizations: Kyiv Biennial, Kyiv Locations: Crimea, Soviet, Russia, Vienna, Ukraine, Dnipro, biennials