Ievgenia Gubkina: Ukrainian Architectural Heritage Under Russian Threat
We cordially invite you to a lecture by architect, theorist, and curator Ievgenia Gubkina from Kharkiv, on the current situation in Ukraine, taking place on April 11, 2021, at 6:00 PM at the House of Lords from Kunstát (the lecture will be in English).
"The Russian army is deliberately destroying the historical centers of our cities – medieval Chernihiv, baroque Sumy, classical Kherson and Mykolaiv, historicizing Mariupol, and modernist Kharkiv. The entire center of Kharkiv, which contains the largest number of monuments of various styles and periods, has been severely damaged by Russian bombs; every fourth building has been destroyed. Kharkiv is world-renowned for its interwar modernism, including Soviet-Ukrainian Constructivism, with the main example being the Děržprom building, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List. Part of the complex is the former government center of Soviet Ukraine, today's Freedom Square, with the Kharkiv Regional Administration building, whose bombing, captured on video from March 1, has gone viral worldwide.
Today, the heritage of Ukrainian art, architecture, and urbanism, the entire Ukrainian culture and its historical memory, faces obliteration. The extent of building destruction in Ukrainian cities, the looming loss of their identity and inhabitants, can be compared to the most devastated cities during World War II – Warsaw, Rotterdam, and Dresden. Along with other war crimes, according to the international Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the war in Ukraine can be classified as genocide committed in the 21st century."
"The Russian army is deliberately destroying the historical centers of our cities – medieval Chernihiv, baroque Sumy, classical Kherson and Mykolaiv, historicizing Mariupol, and modernist Kharkiv. The entire center of Kharkiv, which contains the largest number of monuments of various styles and periods, has been severely damaged by Russian bombs; every fourth building has been destroyed. Kharkiv is world-renowned for its interwar modernism, including Soviet-Ukrainian Constructivism, with the main example being the Děržprom building, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List. Part of the complex is the former government center of Soviet Ukraine, today's Freedom Square, with the Kharkiv Regional Administration building, whose bombing, captured on video from March 1, has gone viral worldwide.
Today, the heritage of Ukrainian art, architecture, and urbanism, the entire Ukrainian culture and its historical memory, faces obliteration. The extent of building destruction in Ukrainian cities, the looming loss of their identity and inhabitants, can be compared to the most devastated cities during World War II – Warsaw, Rotterdam, and Dresden. Along with other war crimes, according to the international Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the war in Ukraine can be classified as genocide committed in the 21st century."
The English translation is powered by AI tool. Switch to Czech to view the original text source.
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