On 1 October 2024, the exhibition ‘Antitext’ will open at the Art Space in Exile of the Hotel Continental in Berlin, exploring the complex literary history of Ukraine. ‘Antitext’ focuses on the impact of the totalitarian Soviet regime in the 20th century on Ukrainian literature and culture, as well as that of the current war of aggression.
Image gallery
Key Visual, Antitext
The aim of the exhibition is to explore how texts shape our cultural memory and what influence forgotten or censored works have on our lives today.
‘Our cultural memory determines who we are. Texts are the tools of memory. In a totalitarian state, texts that did not conform to official ideology became ‘anti-texts’ and were therefore destroyed. As a result, they remained unknown to future generations,’ emphasise the organisers of the Kharkiv Literature Museum.
About the exhibition
‘Antitext: The Tragic Literary History of Ukraine’ shows how the Soviet Union almost destroyed Ukraine's literary heritage in the 20th century through censorship and persecution of Ukrainian authors. Authors were politically persecuted and repressed, and their works were hidden in special archives that were not accessible to the public for decades.
The exhibition not only sheds light on these difficult chapters of history, but also raises important questions about how these losses have affected Ukraine's cultural memory and identity: Would we be different today if we had had access to these texts? If these writers had lived and continued writing instead of being suppressed? Ignorance also characterises our society.
This history continues in Russia's current war of aggression against Ukraine. The aggressor's actions go beyond military attacks and are also directed against Ukrainian culture itself: in the occupied territories, artists are killed, cultural institutions are destroyed, Ukrainian books are removed from libraries and schools, and museums and archives are looted. Ukrainian curricula are being replaced by Russian ones.
The exhibition does not show traditional museum objects. This is symbolic of the current situation in Ukrainian museums, where cultural artefacts have to be hidden in order to preserve them for future generations. However, the exhibition does show works by Ukrainian authors that Ukrainians were able to protect and preserve despite all attempts by the Soviet authorities to destroy them.
Framework programme
The exhibition is also hosting public readings of works by Ukrainian authors who were persecuted during the Soviet era. In addition, guided tours are being offered by the staff of the Hotel Continental.
Additional information
Opening hours:
Tuesday to Friday: 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Saturday to Sunday: 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
