Conference Programme

Thursday, 11 December 2014

19.30 h: "Values and Change" (Opening, Academy of Arts, Pariser Platz)

Opening Adress: Michael Roth, Minister of State for Europe, Federal Foreign Office

In Europe we are currently engaged in a discourse on values, which has taken a very confrontational course, but has also made the public more aware of and subsequently defend already attained values it had fought for in the past. Values, which can be of humanistic or democratic nature, essentially gain in precision yet can also exclude the “Other” in the form of religious or nationalistic convictions and consequently destabilize political and social systems. The turning points of the past 25 years have created a considerable amount of tension, which encompasses traditional and future-oriented values yet in times of political and medial turmoil can also show symptoms of instability.

Participants: Serhij Zhadan and Karl Schlögel

Facilitator: Sabine Adler (Deutschlandfunk)

Reception after the event

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FRIday, 12 December 2014

17 – 18.30 h: Street Protest and Social Change (Panel 1)

Street protests such as the latest example at Euromaidan can become an impressive symbol for opposition against the regime and against encrusted structures. They even show signs of civil society if principles such as selforganisation and participation are able to pave the way for these protests to succeed. Yet aspired social change will fail as long as there is no legal basis for an independent functioning of national institutions and corruption is part of the system. The panel will ask the question of how street protests must be canalised so that the constructive will for change can turn into permanent structural change.

Participants: Yaroslav Hrytsak, Vasyl Cherepanyn and Wolfgang Templin

Facilitator: Gerhard Gnauck (Die Welt)

 

19 – 20.30 h: Outbreak of Violence (Panel 2)

Since April 2014 Ukrainian military units are fighting against separatists in the eastern regions of the country supported by Russia. During the military conflict more than 6000 people have been killed. Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine share similar experiences of violence and war. The panel will discuss the social and institutional reasons for the escalation of violence and asks which concepts of the enemy the conflict is based on, how values shift in the face of an upsurge of patriotism and nationalism and how dialogue as a means of resolving conflict can be initiated.

Participants: Roman Dubasevych, Anton Shekhovtsov and Yevgenia Belorusets

Facilitator: Walter Kaufmann (Heinrich-Böll-Foundation)

 

21 h: Literary Evening

With Halyna Kruk, Boris Chersonskij, Ljubov Jakymchuk, Serhij Zhadan, Aleksandr Kabanov, Ostap Slyvynsky and Irakli Kakabadze.

Facilitator: Susanne Frank (HU Berlin)

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Saturday, 13 December 2014

17 – 18.30 h: Social Media as an Instrument for Protest, Exclusion and Propaganda (Panel 3)

Social media have made an important contribution to organising the protest on Maidan in Kiev and bringing people together. They are however also the perfect location for propagandistic distortion and hoaxes and enable exclusion of other opinions and the retreat into smaller circles of communication. The panel will trace these movements in social media and will try to find out to what degree social media structures advance or hinder an objective, matter-of-fact exchange.

Participants: Andriy Bondar, Nataliya Jerjomenko and Nataliya Sedletska

Facilitator: Kateryna Mishchenko (Publicist, Kiev)

19 – 20.30 h: Art and Participation (Panel 4)

In many regions art as well as other cultural practices have prepared if not initiated political opposition. But how does art come to terms with rebellious current events and what kind of traces will art leave in the future? How can art enable an active participation in social processes of transformation with aesthetic means or advance to a political strategy? And how does opposition manifest itself in the fine arts, which have accompanied the Euromaidan and the Rose Revolution in Georgia?

Nicoleta Esinencu, Mykola Ridnyi, Irakli Kakabadze and Olga Shparaga

Facilitator: Antje Contius (S. Fischer Foundation)

21 h: Concert with Mariana Sadovska