"IZOLYATSIA: Ukrainian art in exile" Katarzyna Jagodzińska

In 2010, in the territory of a former factory in Donetsk, an independent platform for contemporary art IZOLYATSIA emerged. Starting in the mid–twentieth century, the factory employing over 1,000 people produced mineral wool boards and other insulation products. The collapse of the Soviet Union brought about a slow decline of the factory. The foundation IZOLYATSIA aims to preserve the industrial heritage of Donetsk, and also inspire social and cultural transformation in Ukraine – in the context of this heritage. Large size contemporary artworks were put on display in the middle of the factory complex, and Cameroon–born artist Pascale Marthine Tayou’s giant lipstick art installation, tellingly entitled Make up… Peace!, became a symbol visible from afar. The installation has been removed and war has been going on in the region.

Katarzyna Jagodzińska: What happened on 9 June 2014?

Lubov Michailova: On 9 June 2014, the militia of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR) invaded and seized the territory of the former insulation materials factory in Donetsk, where the IZOLYATSIA foundation had been based since 2010. They claimed to need the territory for storing the “humanitarian aid” that was arriving from the Russian Federation and as a bomb shelter. The militia subsequently looted the foundation’s premises, vandalising property and removing equipment and the contents of the foundation’s safety vault. Metal structures, including works of art, were cut up and taken out for scrap. Since then, the territory of IZOLYATSIA has been used to provide a base for training combatants affiliated to DPR forces, whilst also functioning as an arms depot and a detention centre, with numerous reports of hostages being tortured there.

To this day, IZOLYATSIA has been unable to salvage from Donetsk its institutional archive, library, a 3D printer and a laser-cutter that were part of IZOLAB, computers, and many artworks. The foundation has evacuated its team, and since then has been carrying out its activities from Kyiv.

Did you manage to save anything from your collection?

Only a third of our collection has been saved. The list of works (still rather extensive) can be found on our website . Among the works of art which remained on the occupied territory are installations and large-scale objects by Daniel Buren (France), Cai Guo-Qiang (China), Leandro Erlich (Argentina), Kader Attia (France), Pascale Marthine Tayou (Cameroon/France), Luba Malikova, Zhanna Kadyrova, APL315, and Hamlet Zinkovsky (all Ukraine) and other artists.

While the marauders continue to destroy any manifestation of art on the occupied territory, the artists who worked with IZOLYATSIA are helping to make up for the losses – recreating their works, or offering new ones instead of the destroyed pieces.

Why do you think the separatists decided to destroy the works of art? Some of them were created by internationally acclaimed artists and had great market value. Was it a symbolic gesture, or rather proof of ignorance?

Leonid Baranov, head of the special committee of DPR, which has been occupying IZOLYATSIA, declared, “They say that it was an international art centre. We had no choice but to occupy it, because the art which they were spreading was not art at all. On the territory of the Donetsk Republic this kind of art will be punished.” His statement referred mainly to the book by Boris Mikhailov, which contains a photo series titled Case History, illustrating the state of uncertainty in the post-Soviet period using the example of the lives of Kharkiv’s homeless people. As DPR see themselves as the bearers of Russian Orthodox traditions and “moral values”, they could not tolerate provocative works of contemporary art in Donetsk. Cultural variety and critical thinking are definitely not on the list of their priorities.

At the same time, it is clear that selling art installations as scrap metal was a way of making easy money, and I can hardly imagine that the DPR mercenaries even realised the market value of these works, let alone the ways they could sell them internationally. So it was a mixture of militant obscurantism, taste for instant profit and ignorance that led to the destruction. There were also some purely utilitarian reasons: for instance, Maria Kulikovska’s soap sculpture “Homo bulla” was used for target training.

What has been said about the destruction of artworks in your original location in Donetsk in Ukraine? Do people know about it?

After the seizure of our premises and exile, we received many words of support from our international partners – in fact, they were more supportive than the Ukrainian authorities, who ought to be the first ones to help us. No doubt, the war has already taken several thousands of human lives in Ukraine, and compared to this harsh everyday reality, the misfortunes of an art institution may seem insignificant to many people in our country. But here lies our main concern: a significant part of Ukraine’s population, including politicians, still doesn’t seem to understand that there is a direct connection between the destruction of culture and human deaths. This is what we are trying to make clear with our projects, and for this very reason we have done everything possible to make our story known to the wider public in Ukraine. Today there are few people within the art community and beyond who don’t know about IZOLYATSIA’s experience.

It is also worth mentioning that we didn’t really expect to get a lot of coverage in the Ukrainian media, taking into account the current policy of the Ukrainian government, especially the recent decommunisation law. This controversial legislation puts into danger many Soviet artworks of high artistic value, such as sculptures and mosaics, for the simple fact that they feature USSR symbols. Many works have already been demolished, and we cannot help but compare these voluntary acts of state-sanctioned vandalism to the actions of DPR mercenaries who destroyed artworks at IZOLYATSIA, judging them too “decadent”.

Do you have any feedback from the local communities in Donetsk?

We have virtually no contacts left there. Most of our partners, contributors and friends left Donetsk after the arrival of DPR. We learnt about the destruction of the giant lipstick crowning our factory smokestack from social networks. This artwork by Pascale Marthine Tayou, entitled “Make up… Peace!”, was dedicated to the women of Donbas and noted their role in the reconstruction of post-war Donetsk. Apparently, the DPR representatives found this work offensive, or they simply needed some more metal, for they blew the thing up.

How did the invasion affect your identity? What were your priorities in Donetsk, and what do you focus on in your activities in Kyiv?

Although the exile has certainly been a traumatic experience for the team, IZOLYATSIA’s mission hasn’t changed since we moved to Kyiv. We keep on using culture as a tool for social, cultural, political, and economic change. IZOLYATSIA has remained a multidisciplinary centre working in three directions: site-specific art projects, educational programmes and creative industries aimed at developing local communities.

Eastern Ukraine, with its vast steppes, has traditionally been a region of nomads: Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians and many others. Ironically, it’s only since being forced out of Donbas that we have embraced this nomadic identity. Even though we are currently based in the Kyiv shipyards, most of our projects are aimed at Eastern Ukraine and abroad. In Kyiv, we have IZONE, a creative community that includes spaces for temporary exhibitions, concerts and lectures, as well as IZOLAB (our fab lab), a photo studio and several workshops. Yet our main focus is on our initiatives in Donbas, which include the ZMINA project, a series of cultural and educational events in the near-front zone, as well as the recent “Architecture Ukraine” residency for architects and artists interested in urban interventions and the “Letters to the Mayor” project, both held in Mariupol, where we recently opened a representative office. Of equal importance are our international projects, such as the “#onvacation” guerrilla action during the 56th Venice Biennale and “Culture and Conflict: IZOLYATSIA in Exile” exhibition, held in Palais de Tokyo in Paris and later at DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague. These projects seek to raise awareness of the situation in Ukraine among the international community, while trying to voice different points of view at the events.

So IZOLYATSIA is not anchored to one geographical location any more, yet our main focus remains on Eastern Ukraine.

Could you give an example of a project you are working on at the moment that aims at change on various levels and at the same is connected to the region?

“Letters to the Mayor” is a project initiated by the NYC-based institution Storefront for Art and Architecture and first held in New York. Recent and upcoming editions are in Panama City, Bogota and Buenos Aires. We decided to carry out this project in Mariupol during the mayoral election in the city. First, a selected diverse group of architects and designers wrote letters to the mayor of Mariupol, articulating some of the pressing concerns and desires they believe play an important role in transforming the city. Later on, these letters were exhibited as an interactive installation in Mariupol, and local inhabitants were invited to contribute to the exhibition with their own letters. As a result, we’ve collected eighteen letters from the architects and twenty more from citizens of Mariupol, giving an amazing overview of the issues in the city and creative ways of solving them. But more importantly, we have handed over these letters to the current mayor and candidates in the ongoing election campaign, which force them to react somehow. So now the city community is awaiting their response, which will certainly be taken into consideration when one of them becomes the next mayor of Mariupol.

Is it difficult to convince people to participate in artistic projects?

No, it’s not. Most of our projects are site-specific and are meant to react to certain issues, which are understood by local communities and matter to them. This is why locals usually react enthusiastically to our initiatives and are keen on participating.

How do you see your position in Ukraine after going into exile?

Although we certainly are a Ukrainian organisation, we like to think of ourselves as cosmopolitans, and our international art residencies and exhibition projects prove that well. We try to open Ukraine to the world art scene and integrate our country into a larger cultural context, make it a part of the international network.

In times of war, the official position of the Ukrainian government concerning culture seems to be limited to patriotic gestures and propaganda, while leaving deeper reflection and more subtle manifestations for better times. We strongly disagree with this view, and insist on the importance of culture right now, at this critical moment in Ukrainian history. We feel that many of the grotesque events of recent years, including war in the East, would never have happened if culture had been a priority in Ukraine. Therefore, our position is to change this agenda by bringing international artists and cultural activists to Ukraine, supporting the young Ukrainian art scene, and in this way showing Ukraine to the world, drawing the two worlds closer to each other. Moreover, within the Ukrainian context it is important for us to give a voice to people hailing from Donbas, who are often ignored by the Ukrainian media and a larger audience. These people might say uncomfortable things, which is why public opinion in Ukraine tends to marginalise them, but it is vital for us to hear these opinions in order to understand the nature of recent events and think of the ways to prevent them from ever happening again.

This will be a slightly provocative question. The invasion of your building, destruction of the works of art and necessity to go into exile is no doubt a horrible thing. But if it had not happened, there would not be an international discussion on the situation of Ukrainian contemporary art and on your activities. At least not on this scale. In a way you have become the voice of Ukrainian contemporary culture abroad. Paradoxically this tragic situation allows you to spread your communication widely both in Ukraine and in Western countries. Do you see it in these terms?

Yes and no. Even before the exile, IZOLYATSIA was part of international networks such as TEH, ResArtis, and FabLab, and developed its connections around the world. It would be an exaggeration to say that the invasion helped us with international promotion. But, on the other hand, negative experience is always an opportunity for improvement. Exile certainly forced us to revise many of our views and our position in Ukraine, and in a way, this new situation has pushed us to move forward with new ideas and even more motivation.

So what is your position among other Ukrainian cultural institutions and organisations?

IZOLYATSIA is one of the important cultural agents in Ukraine. Unfortunately, we are in a unique position as a private Ukrainian institution that has lost most of its collection, but we haven’t lost any of our energy or determination to work for change. Currently our main topic is culture and conflict – the ways in which culture can operate to prevent conflict, help to resolve it and construct a better society once the war is over. IZOLYATSIA is distinguished from other cultural institutions in Ukraine by its primary focus on Eastern Ukraine.

How has the Ukrainian scene of contemporary art and culture changed since Donetsk was taken over by separatists?

We have a thriving young art scene in Ukraine that has been very sensitive to the political situation in the country for some time now. Ever since the Orange Revolution in 2004-2005, there have been many artists in Ukraine reacting almost immediately to the events. Contemporary Ukrainian art often deals with social and political topics and the way our country treads its way towards Europe. The annexation of Crimea and war in the East have provoked an immediate response from numerous artists, just as Euromaidan did before that. These statements are very emotional in most cases, and it is hard to speak of a profound analysis of the situation so far.

Of course, there are artists in Ukraine who prefer to stay out of politics and current social reality, as there are those who thoroughly collect materials, go to other countries with similar experiences to Ukraine and carry out art projects that are much more complex. Still, the general picture of the art scene in Ukraine, dynamic as it is, lacks deeper, cool-headed reflection on recent events and a more distanced view, which is quite understandable. More time needs to pass to make a thoughtful analysis possible.

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IZOLYATSIA outside Ukraine – commentary from Prague by Michaela Šilpochová

A cultural institution was seized by militia and turned into a military base. Artworks have been destroyed, and on the premises of the occupied gallery people are being imprisoned and tortured. The team, along with other people – artists, journalists and students, was forced into exile… This is not a dystopian novel about the “death of culture” in a fictitious country suffering under an oppressive regime. The place is Donetsk. The time is 2014. And yet the story of the independent cultural centre IZOLYATSIA sounds all too dangerously Orwellian.

In June 2015, members of the exiled IZOLYATSIA team, now operating from Kiev, turned to the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague with a request to organise a press conference and a one-day exhibition at DOX about their situation. Our reply was immediate, and the result was a six-week exhibition, a press conference and a discussion on the role of art, artists, and art institutions during times of conflict.

The exhibition opened with a performance by Sergei Zakharov, an artist who himself was arrested and tortured on the premises of the IZOLYATSIA cultural centre. His works were featured in the exhibition together with video interviews with other civilians held by the representatives of the Donetsk People’s Republic at IZOLYATSIA’s site, as well as interviews with the representatives of the militia occupying the cultural centre. People may think they know a lot about the situation in Eastern Ukraine from the media. Still, most visitors left dumbstruck. This is the 21st century, and this is what is happening just about 2000 kilometres from Prague. And some animals are again becoming more equal than others…

The exhibition generated several lengthy articles in major Czech media as well as TV and radio coverage. It was important in the sense that through this hardly credible story of a brutally occupied art institution and the violation of certain values and attitudes the institution represents and stands for, they offered a different perspective on what is happening in Eastern Ukraine.

Lubov Mikhailova – born in Donetsk. In 1984 she graduated from the Economics Department of Donetsk Institute of Soviet Trade (now M.I. Tugan-Baranovsky Donetsk National University of Economics and Trade). In 1988 she started her own business in production and international trading of carbon products, and since that year she has been living outside Ukraine. In 2010, she founded IZOLYATSIA. Platform for Cultural Initiatives in Donetsk. Mikhailova is a member of the Tate Eastern Europe Acquisitions Committee and of the supervisory board at Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Museum Complex.