A report on the condition of culture and NGOs in OPEN CULTURE FOUNDATION – SOCIAL CHANGE THroUGH CULTURE. Open Culture – opening to culture, opening through culture. Change through culture. For us, culture is a tool of quiet, peaceful social revolution. It is especially important with regard to the post-Soviet countries within our area of interest. www.fundacjaopenculture.org ON-liNE MAGAZINE “KulTURA ENTER” describes changes in culture, interdisciplinary created art, and cross-boarder initiatives and works of art. cultural management / research of culture / good space / alternative education / Europe / independent culture / culture of knowledge / Lublin / city and citizens / new media / memory / Eastern Partnership / participation / performance studies / culture policy / future / local government / networks / local communities / stereotypes / identity / tradition / web 2.0 / multiculturalism / the East www.kulturaenter.pl THE KULTURA ENTER FOUNDATION steams from a belief that culture is a factor in human lives that is responsible for both individual’s development and social relations. The aim of the Foundation is to inspire, coordinate and encourage all forms of social participation as well as to promote active engagement of individuals and organisations in cultural and social life of the city. Through its activities, the Foundation helps to unlock the richness of potentials that are hidden in individuals and organisations. www.kulturaenter.org PARTNERS A report on the condition of culture and NGOs in Ukraine “A Report on the Condition of Culture and NGOs in Ukraine” is the second publication out of seven that are being prepared within a series started by the Open Culture Foundation – “A Report on the Condition of Independent Culture and NGOs in Eastern Partnership Countries and Russia”. It was prepared as a special edition of “Kultura Enter” magazine – www.kulturaenter.pl – in cooperation with Kultura Enter Foundation. PROJECT ORIGINATOR Paweł Laufer EXECUTIVE EDITOR Paweł Laufer EDITORIAL BOARD Mykola Riabchuk, Andrij Saweneć PROJECT SECRETARY Katarzyna Plebańczyk TRANSLATORS Anna Chłopik, Paweł Jarosz, Karolina Kaszuba, Katarzyna Kotyńska, Konrad Szulga, Mateusz Zalewski, Rustem Abliatif, Marianna Balyta, Pavlo Hrytsak, Andriy Masliukh, Blair Sheridan, Serhiy Snihur, Andrij Saweneć LANGUAGE EDITORSHIP Dorota Stachura (English), Paweł Laufer, Katarzyna Plebańczyk (Polish), Andrij Saweneć (Ukrainian) GRAPHIC DESIGN AND TYPESETTING Studio Format / studioformat.pl © Fundacja Open Culture, Lublin 2012 © Fundacja Kultura Enter, Lublin 2012 ISBN 978–83–62495–25–2 PUBLISHER Episteme ul. Solna 4/9, 20–021 Lublin, tel. 669 924 164, [email protected] PRINT Petit s.k. ul. Tokarska 13, 20–210 Lublin, tel. (81) 744 56 59 Project co-financed by the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs with an annual program Cooperation in Public Diplomacy. 4 PAWEł LAUFER / MYKOLA RIABCHUK / ANDRIY SAVENETS CONTENTS PAweł LAUFER / MYKOLA RIABCHUK / ANDRIJ SAWENEĆ IN UKRAINE……7 HORIZON MYKOLA RIABCHUK UKRAINIAN CULTURE AFTER COMMUNISM: BetWEEN POST-COLONIAL LIBERATION AND NEO-COLONIAL ENSLAVEMENT… … 12 ZENOVIY MAZURYK CULTURAL POLICY IN INDEPENDENT UKRAINE: UNFULFILLED HOPES AND LOST OPPORTUNITIES. WHAT IS NEXT?……24 OLEKSANDR BUTSENKO TWO MAIN PROBLEMS OF THE CULTURAL SectoR……35 TERRY SANDEll UKRAINE AND THE EU – THE EASTERN PARTNERSHIP CULTURE PROGRAMME……44 UKRAINIAN CULTURE – AN ATTEMPT AT COMPREHENSIVE DIAGNOSIS SVITLANA OLESHKO INTERVIEW……56 VOLODYMYR TYKHYI INTERVIEW……59 OLHA KUPRIYAn INTERVIEW……62 CULTURE – ARTICLES JERZY ONUCH BECAUSE IT IS DIFFERENT HERE. UKRAINIAN “PROJect DUBAI” ……67 ZOFIA BLUSZCZ SOME REMARKS ON CONTEMPORARY ART IN UKRAINE……79 OLEKSANDR MYKHEd THE SEARCH FOR A FORMULA OF MODERN UKRAINIAN ART……88 KATERYNA BOTANOVA THE CAUCUS-RACE……102 BOHDAN SHUMYLOVYCH ART FOR EXPORT: DO MARGINAL FORMS AND GENRES OF ART HAVE A CHANCE TO BECOME IMPORTANT IN UKRAINE?… … 114 CONTENTS 5 OKSANA ZABUZHKO UKRAINE: EUROPE’S UNDERGROUND… … 125 ANDRIY LYUBKA “SUCHUKRLIT”: LITERATURE MORE SUccessFUL THAN ITS COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE… … 131 ANDREY KURKOV UKRAINIAN CULTURE CAN BE SUccessFUL……143 MYKHAILO BRYNYKH THE ONE WHOSE PIPES OF GLORY KEEP SILENCE. UKRAINIAN CINEMA IN THE PAST TWENTY YEARS: RUNNING AWAY FROM PoetRY……153 OLEKSANDR YEVTUSHENKO THE MUSICAL “AtLANTIS” OF UKRAINE……163 KATERYNA BABKINA THE HOLIDAY WHICH MAY STILL COME AROUND – UKRAINIAN FESTIVAL MOVEMENT……173 UKRAINIAN NGO SECTOR – AN ATTEMPT AT COMPREHENSIVE DIAGNOSIS TETIANA IATSKIV INTERVIEW……186 MARTYNA MICHALIK INTERVIEW……190 VIKTOR ANDRUSIV INTERVIEW……194 NATALIA GMURKOWSKA INTERVIEW……197 PAweł PROKOp INTERVIEW……201 NGO – ARTICLES PIOTR KaźMIERKIEWICZ THE CONDITION OF UKRAINIAN CIVIL SocietY – AN AtteMpt AT DIAGNOSIS.……206 ANDRIY KOHUT THE UKRAINIAN CIVIL SocietY OF 2012: IN SEARCH OF AN ALTERNATIVE… … 217 YULIYA TYSHCHENKO / VLADYSLAVA BAKALCHUK NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS AND THE GOVERNMENT: ON THE BORDERLINE OF IDENTITY, CULTURE, AND POLITICS……227 YEVHEN BORISOV / ANDRIY YANOVYCH LocAL GRAssROOTS INITIATIVES As AN ALTERNATIVE FOR THE NGO SectoR IN UKRAINE……240 RÜSTEM ABLÂTIF (RUSTEM АbLYATIF) THE CRIMEAN TATAR CIVIL MOVEMENT: STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT……250 OKSANA KIs FEMINISM IN CONTEMPORARY UKRAINE: FROM “ALLERGY” TO LAST HOPE……264 6 CONTENTS PAweł LAUFER MYKOLA RIABCHUK ANDRIJ SAWENEĆ IN UKRAINE The term “report” used in the title is by all means deliberate and fiddly, similarly to the expression “in Ukraine,” debatable in the Polish language amongst those who got accustomed to the phrase “on Ukraine.” In the first case, keen to avoid academism and diplomacy in capturing the “Ukrainian issue,” we are unwilling to downgrade the representative status of – sometimes even personal – authors’ “reports.” In the second case, we would like to contribute to the revision of the cultural and worldview coordinates that “for us” and “according to us” are currently, or con- tinuously, assigned to Ukraine, which in our opinion is reflected by the colonial “on.” In A Report, subject matter experts carry out a cross-sectional evaluation of the condition of culture, alternative culture, and NGOs in Ukraine. It is an attempt to portray the current situation with reference to the European context and the internal conditioning in Ukraine. The report attempts at the diagnosis within such areas of interest as: the publishing market, literature, theater, cinema, musical stage, art as such, cultural infrastructure, the media, civil society, human rights, education, or the legal environment in which NGOs operate. A Report on the Condition of Culture and NGOs in Ukraine constitutes a specific and sometimes personal guide to the cultural sector and NGOs, consisting of articles, studies, report summaries, as well as interviews of outstanding experts and practitioners in these fields. The authors are predominantly Ukrainian. They have attempted to answer three questions: what is the situation?, what do we expect from each other?, how can we achieve it? IN UKRAINE 7 We wanted the attempt to answer these questions in an approachable, understandable, and frequently direct manner to bring closer the still frequently incomprehensible and rejected Ukrainian narration. The current narration, which lately seems to be evading even what is qualified as “fashion.” Paweł Laufer Formulating questions and ordering the received responses, we, the editors of A Report, would like to receive not merely an ordinary collection of texts, informa- tive and analytical to some degree, but also demonstrate their mutual synergy. This would result in creating a view on contemporary Ukraine as a country of a rich, diversified, and prospective culture, with a young and dynamic civil society which cultivates and supports this culture in spite of the general dysfunctionality of the unreformed post-communist state. Ukraine must deal simultaneously with two extremely difficult legacies: totali- tarian and colonial. They reveal themselves in the ineffectiveness of old institutions, the conservatism and corruption of comprador elites, the noticeable influence, or even domination of the colonial and neocolonial discourses, the authoritarian- paternalistic mentality of a significant part of the society, as well as its profound structural deformations. Not only does Ukrainian culture oppose these legacies, but it also comes up with a clear alternative – European, modern, multiethnic, and multilingual, derived from the tradition of national spiritual resistance and inspired by global search for novelty and freedom. The multitude of styles and genres – doesn’t it sound like its greatest achievement in the last twenty years? Mykola Riabchuk A Report does not include everything as planned. What remains to be expected is that the recognition of unquestionable thematic gaps in this publication will turn into a strong incentive to fill them – though in a different time and by dif- ferent means. I sincerely believe that this report accomplishes its mission, giving voice to the authors – acute observers of today’s Ukrainian reality and, in most cases, also the insiders of cultural circles and NGOs, authors and activists, active participants and, in a way, the architects of the described processes and events. Disregarding its low level of “academism” and high intelligibility, I hope it does not border on populism. It shows an objective, divergent view on the specificity and paradoxes 8 PAWEł LAUFER / MYKOLA RIABCHUK / ANDRIY SAVENETS of contemporary Ukraine. It is a portrayal of generations and environments which are and will be creating future Ukraine