Reclaiming the History

Illustration

Dates: 3–26 July 2026
Venue: The address will be shared upon registration.

Reclaiming the History is an art project exploring local memory, museum narratives, and new approaches to understanding cultural heritage in contemporary Ukraine. The project brings together artists who spent a week working with museum collections, archives, industrial landscapes, and the local histories of Kryvyi Rih.
The research residency took place in Kryvyi Rih in late May 2026 and became a platform for critical dialogue on the role of museums in shaping collective memory, particularly in the context of war and the reassessment of colonial heritage. An important part of the programme included meetings with researchers specialising in decolonial studies, as well as collaboration with British museum expert Neil Titman, who delivered a series of public lectures on contemporary approaches to museum decolonisation and served as a mentor to the participating artists. Throughout the residency, he supported the development of new artworks, providing expert guidance on working with historical narratives, museum collections, and critical approaches to interpreting cultural heritage.
Participating artists: Yevheniia Hryhorian (Kyiv), IYA KO / Kseniia Kostiianets (Kryvyi Rih), Illia Levchenko (Kyiv), Maryna Chaika and Dmytro Konovalov (Kharkiv), as well as Anzhela Kunytsia (Kryvyi Rih), Olha Marchenko (Kryvyi Rih), Oksana Zharun (Kryvyi Rih), and Kateryna Bondarets (Kryvyi Rih).

Exploring the Museums of Kryvyi Rih

Over the course of one week, from 25 to 31 May, the artists explored the city's museums, artists' studios, and industrial landscapes. The programme included visits to the Hryhorii Synytsia Museum-Apartment, the studio of Kryvyi Rih artist Eh Nastia, the Kryvyi Rih Municipal Exhibition Hall, the Kryvyi Rih Museum of Local History, the ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih Museum of History, a guided tour of the Southern Mining and Processing Plant, the Museum of Jewish History and Culture, an industrial heritage tour led by Anna Litvinchuk, and a visit to the independent art space High Room. Photographs documenting the residency were taken by Anna Balvas.

The residency resulted in a series of newly commissioned artworks that offer contemporary perspectives on museum collections, local history, and the cultural heritage of Kryvyi Rih. Through diverse artistic practices, the participating artists question which stories museums tell today, whose voices remain unheard, and what the museum of the future might become.

Photographer: Daria Kolomoiets

Exhibition Opening

Exhibition

Public Programme

Video recording of the event

Photo by Anna Balvas

“In Whose Words? The Ukrainian Decolonial Glossary Between Self-Reflection and External Dialogue”

Speakers: Anastasiia Omelianiuk and Iva Naidenko

Decolonisation is one of the most widely discussed—and at the same time one of the most contested—concepts of our time. But whose words do we use to describe it? And are those words truly our own?
This lecture introduces the Ukrainian Decolonial Glossary, a collaborative project born from a simple yet profound question: What happens to words when they are translated through the experience of colonisation? Which concepts resist translation? Which disappear altogether?
The speakers will not only explore these questions conceptually but will also offer insights into the making of the Glossary itself, discussing how to speak about decolonisation while striving to practice decolonial methods.
The lecture continues an ongoing attempt to understand what decolonisation means in the Ukrainian context—not as an abstract theory imported from elsewhere, but as a living experience shaped between the personal and the political, between academic language and the realities of everyday survival.
The discussion will examine decolonial thought and activism through two interconnected dimensions: Ukraine's dialogue with the outside world, where decolonisation serves as a strategy of international advocacy, and a critical inward reflection on the country's own past and present challenges.

  • The "External Dialogue" section will explore the challenges of integrating Ukrainian experiences into global anti-imperialist and anti-colonial discourses, including how the Kremlin appropriates decolonial rhetoric to justify its own imperial aggression.
    The "Self-Reflection" section will address the paradoxes of practising decolonisation during an ongoing war, when these conversations become simultaneously urgent and, at times, feel like a luxury.
    Anastasiia Omelianiuk is an anthropologist and holds a PhD in Anthropology.
    Iva Naidenko is a curator, artist, and co-founder of KSI Prostir.

Video recording of the event

Photographer: Anna Balvas

“A Historiographic Turn? Artists and History, Women Artists in History, Artists Outside History, Art Histories, Histories of Artists”

Speaker: Illia Levchenko

This lecture is a public reflection on art history as a field of constant revision, exclusion, appropriation, and struggle for visibility. During the lecture, Illia Levchenko will examine how artists not only respond to history but also actively produce historical narratives—personal, collective, and alternative to the canonical versions of art history. Why do certain names become embedded in institutional memory while others remain excluded? And how do gender, colonial, and geopolitical dynamics shape these processes?

  • The lecture will also address the boundaries of art history as a discipline: who has the authority to speak on its behalf, what methodologies it employs, and what it fundamentally fails to recognise. Particular attention will be given to the ways contemporary artists—especially those from Ukraine and the broader Eastern European region—engage with archives, documents, and historical sources, effectively taking on the roles of researchers and historians. Through their artistic methodologies, they not only reinterpret the past but also create new ways of articulating experiences that official historical narratives often cannot—or choose not to—accommodate. In this sense, the lecture explores history as a space for artistic production, critical inquiry, and political imagination. 
    Illia Levchenko is a researcher of contemporary art and holds a PhD in Art History.

Video recording of the event

“Decommunisation and Decolonisation at the War Museum in Kyiv: Rewriting History or Redefining It?”

Speaker: Roman Kabachii

This lecture explores the transformation of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, a museum that once served as one of the Soviet Union's symbolic landmarks in Kyiv and is located at the foot of Mother Ukraine, Europe's tallest monumental sculpture.
The lecture examines not only the visible aspects of this transformation—such as replacing the Soviet coat of arms on the monument's shield with the Ukrainian Trident and the decommunisation and decolonisation of the "Hero Cities" memorial cubes—but also the deeper shifts in values and institutional mission. The museum is actively working to situate Ukraine's century-long struggle for survival within a broader European context while dismantling colonial narratives embedded in its exhibitions, collections, and public programming.

  • Roman Kabachii is Head of the Sector at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War and holds a PhD in History.

Video recording of the event

“Radical Locality: Ukrainian Discourses of Decolonisation”

Speaker: Kateryna Botanova

This lecture traces the origins of the concepts of decolonisation and decoloniality, exploring their connections to political independence and the production of knowledge. Particular attention is given to the Ukrainian context: how understandings of Ukraine's relationship with Russia have evolved before and after 2014, and how the full-scale invasion has fundamentally transformed perceptions of history, culture, and place.
Kateryna Botanova will also examine how these profound social changes are reflected in the practices of contemporary Ukrainian artists, particularly through their engagement with memory, locality, and new forms of cultural expression.

  • Kateryna Botanova is a cultural critic, curator, and researcher working between Ukraine and Switzerland. Her work focuses on decolonisation, solidarity, and cultural transformation in artistic and cultural practices beyond the Global West. She leads media projects at the Institute of Frontier, where she curates the special project "25 Strategic Questions for Ukraine", serves as co-curator of the Swiss biennial Culturescapes, and is the former director of the Centre for Contemporary Art in Kyiv. In 2025, she curated exhibitions at both the Mystetskyi Arsenal and the PinchukArtCentre. Her writing has appeared in numerous international publications and academic volumes, and she is a member of PEN Ukraine.

The Reclaiming the History project is implemented with the support of the British Council as part of the UK–Ukraine: Culture Sync programme.
Neil Titman is a museum and cultural heritage expert with more than 25 years of experience working with museums, galleries, and cultural institutions across Europe, Asia, and North America. He is the Director of Kulturalis, a publishing company dedicated to promoting world cultures through partnerships with museums. He holds a PhD in French and Latin Literature.
The Kryvyi Rih Cultural Centre (KRCC) is an independent non-governmental organisation dedicated to fostering culture, contemporary art, and the creative industries in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. Its mission is to unlock the city's cultural potential by creating a dynamic environment for the development of creative industries through the activities of KRCC as a cultural institution.

Public initiative designed to develop Kryvyi Rih

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