Exhibition Opening
With Tereza Yakovyna (Artist, Kyiv/Berlin), Ania Koƚyszko (Curator, Düsseldorf)
Moderation: Elisabeth Bauer (HU)

Theater of Hopes and Expectations is a process-based, participatory, and partly performative (re)construction project by the Ukrainian art collective Prykarpattian Theater (Ivan Bazak, Roman Khimei, Yarema Malashchuk, Tereza Yakovyna, Ostap Yashchuk). In a first project phase, a pavilion was erected within Düsseldorf’s Volksgarten from August-October 2022. The construction’s facade was made of theatrical scenery from various German theaters. Theater of Hopes and Expectations opened an exhibition space for Ukrainian art(ists) and offered a participatory program of talks, exhibitions, screenings, concerts, and fundraisers in public space. In a second project phase, the Theater was dismantled and the materials shipped to Ukraine. On the initiative of the volunteer group Livyj Bereh, it has been rebuilt into a new home for the Honchar family in the Kyiv region, whose prior residence was destroyed by the russian tank in the Spring of 2022.

The exhibition displays a project documentation that was previously presented at the 18th Architecture Biennale 2023 in Venedig. Artist and collective member Tereza Yakovyna and Ania Koƚyszko, curator of the first project phase in Düsseldorf, will reflect on the transformative quality of the project, about the ironic and at the same time literary dimension of the 'theater' metaphor challenged throughout the project's realisation, about the 'house' as a symbol for solidarity, community-building, collective memory work, and existential protection.

Throughout the exhibition's duration, the 'house' metaphor will find another continuation in the form of a fundraiser the visitors are invited to support — and thus to question their position as mere spectators of a 'theater' at play, but to actively engage in a process and to join the collective solidary efforts of (re)construction, (re)thinking and (re)imagining Ukraine.

More than 600 days after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, Russian attack and Ukrinian defense continue unabated. The capital Kyiv and numerous other cities of Ukraine, from Kharkiv to L'viv, are regularly bombed, and at the moment (October 2023) there is even talk of one of the most massive offensives in recent months in the Donetsk region. The human losses are enormous on both sides, but peace is far from in sight. Nevertheless, life in Ukraine not only goes on in spite of all this, maintaining a normalcy has even become one of the most important and strongest tactics of survival in this permanently life-threatening situation. Through the tireless repair and reconstruction of destroyed infrastructure, as well as through numerous initiatives in the spheres of industry, business, and art and culture, not only forces are being deployed, but also energies are being released that are so important for Ukraine's survival and victory. It is hard to believe, but new visions of the future are constantly emerging in Ukraine, and not only visions, but very real projects - civic, technical-industrial, entrepreneurial or artistic-cultural - , which design a new Ukraine and even now, in the midst of war, are working on its symbolic and concrete construction. 
In the interdisciplinary series "Rethinking and Reimagining Ukraine in Times of War - and After", which is enriched by artistic contributions and in which several faculties of Humboldt University are participating, we ask how the situation of threat, attack by Russia and the ongoing war shapes and changes Ukrainian society and culture, and what this means for the future. Scholars, artists and poets from Ukraine will discuss with colleagues from Humboldt University current developments, or developments of the past that are of particular relevance for the present, and future perspectives. Experts from the fields of politics, religion, law, history and cultural studies will reflect on war-related developments in society, religion, law, languages and culture or multiculturalism, as well as in academia and its institutions. And contributions from the field of visual arts, literature and music will show how significant the role of art is as a medium of mourning and empathy, as a remedy of deep wounding and traumatization, but also as an instrument of cultural self-reflection and self-discovery and the development of visions beyond the limits of current reality.