With continuous fundraisers and events promoting Ukrainian art and culture, what makes the artistic journey of Heartlands any different?
It is the severe fact of reclaiming Ukrainian musicians and literary revolutionaries – organiser Linda Gough makes it clear that the showcase highlights the work of those “who have tragically lost their lives due to the violence of autocratic regimes.” Spanning from tsarist, stalinist and putinist violence, the show brings a history of shared resilience and experiences delivered in Ukrainian, Yiddish and Tatar. There is an ever growing need to educate and bring Ukrainian culture out from under the trampled russian welcome mat. The fact that the words of poets such as Taras Shevchenko, who yearned for freedom, are still felt today, is scary. Scary that Ukrainian culture has to prove itself as a revolutionary force, one that no missile or gun can shoot down.
Gough mentions that the primary motivator for this event was the work and death of Ukrainian novelist and war crime researcher Viktoriia Amelina (1986-2023). Not to forget the various other creatives who have died on the frontline, mirroring the rubble of museums, libraries and universities around them. Amelina’s debut novel Синдром листопаду, або Homo Compatiens (The Fall Syndrome: about, or Homo Compatiens) 2015 deals with the events at Maidan in 2014, and subsequently her work has leant notions of deep symbolism, myths and biblical allusions – using non-linear structures to share stories of different languages, cultures and eras. Amelina’s works invite personal reflection, they ask us what could be more human than empathy? It is in her death, an attack on free and democratic journalism in Ukraine which brings insight into these targeted strikes: strikes on words themselves.
In the ongoing war for Ukraine’s sovereignty, the lives of two poet-soldiers, Maksym Kryvtsov and Hlib Babich, serve as a poignant reminder of the creative spirit interwoven with national resistance. Maksym Kryvtsov (1990-2024), a junior sergeant known by the call sign “Dali” for his unmissable twisted moustache, exemplified this connection. A veteran of the Revolution of Dignity in 2014 and a National Guard serviceman from 2016 to 2019, he volunteered to the frontline in 2022. Kryvtsov is hailed as a symbol of the “new executed Renaissance,” a heartbreaking continuation of the Soviet-era purges of Ukraine’s intelligentsia. His sacrifice is a testament to a generation of artists who, much like Taras Shevchenko and Vasyl Stus, have used written word alongside action to challenge oppression.
Hlib Babich (1969-2022), poet and lyricist for bands such as Kozak System, also embodied this synergy of art and activism. He joined the Anti-Terrorist Operation in Donbas following Russia’s 2014 aggression and later ran for parliament under the “European Solidarity” banner in 2019. Babich’s collection of poems and songs, published in 2021, underscores his role in bridging the personal and the political, capturing the heartbeat of a nation at war. Both men’s lives and work are now folded into the broader narrative celebrated at Heartlands – a platform where Ukraine’s cultural resilience is showcased against the backdrop of relentless external aggression. Their words, like their courage, echo the unyielding spirit of a nation striving to reclaim its voice.
What I find interesting, is the juxtaposition in the inclusion of Hryhorii Skovoroda (1722-1794), a philosopher and poet who lived and worked in the Cossack Hetmanate. Skovoroda’s works were not printed during his life due to censorship by church officials, his ethics lectures and liturgical music living on as philosophical ‘Skovorodskie psalmy’ in the repertoire of blind kobzar bards. Interestingly, his poems have also been written into pop songs such as Kurs Valut by Kurs Valut (2020), a Ukrainian EDM group from Dnipro. Skovoroda taught that one finds his true calling by self-examination. His personal philosophy, “know yourself,” advises the well-known maxim of the Greek philosopher Socrates. Skovoroda introduced a well founded idea that a person engaged in an in-born, natural work is provided with a truly satisfying and happy life. From EDM to socratic essayist, Skovoroda was a quasi father of Ukrainian culture, his broad influence reflected in the writings of Taras Shevchenko and Ivan Franko, but also Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky and Andrei Bely.
Heartlands bridges the words of the past and present and introduces outsiders to a growing arc of revolutionary writings. The works of Polish-speaking jew Debora Vogel (1900-1942) who studied and lived in Lviv, and later died in the Lviv ghettos, are marked for its experimental spirit. Her poems reflect the radical and minimalistic outlook of the 1930s, fusing art and poetry to “create a new lyric poetry of the urban condition.” This style was condemned by critics as being ‘too intellectual,’ with Vogel responding that she is simply inspired by life’s experiences. Similarly, Ukrainian poet, journalist and active dissident, Vasyl Stus (1938-1985) showed defiance through his work. Actively speaking out against Soviet authorities, his work was destroyed and erased until being incarcerated himself – even then continuing writing, his poems becoming an example of surviving and finding meaning in isolation. In 1983, after his diary had been smuggled out of the camp and published outside the USSR, he spent an entire year alone in a cell. Two years later, he was dead at the age of 47.
But it is the growing reflections and re-ideations of these past writers that makes Heartlands a celebration of Ukrainian literary culture. It goes beyond the page and into the mindset, exploring contemporary writers and poets such as Natalka Bilotserkivets, Serhyi Zhadan and Iryna Shuvalova to share a culture that is continually under threat. The exploration and further education of the creative energy at the heart of Ukrainian statehood is what makes this journey special. Heartlands is the heart of Ukrainian music and language – the land of its own words.
Heartlands will be held at the Cell Block Theatre, National Art School, Darlinghurst on 21 November. Doors open at 6:00pm, performances begin at 7:00pm. Guests can expect delicious and authentic Ukrainian food. Tickets are $150 – all proceeds go to the Defend Ukraine Appeal, Australia’s largest community-run fundraising initiative for non-lethal military aid for Ukraine.
Reserve your ticket now: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1281004
Heartlands Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/15ni1bV3GL
By Solomiya Sywak for Defend Ukraine Appeal
