Heritage Protection: the Case of Ukraine

Heritage International Protection in Wartime: the case of Ukraine

Thursday 23 June 2022, 17h30-19h00

Amphitheater Simone Veil, 28 rue des Saints-Pères, Paris

Read the article about the event and watch the replay:

As the war in Ukraine drags on, this event will address political and urban dimensions of heritage protection through a discussion with the leading Ukrainian architect and scholar, co-founder of the Urban Forms Center in Kharkiv, Ievgeniia Gubkina, and the Director of the Culture and Emergencies entity at UNESCO, Krista Pikkat.

>After the Euro Maidan revolution in 2014, Ukraine has become a beacon for grass-roots experiments in Soviet heritage conservation. NGOs, artists and heritage interpreters are all involved, and a nation-wide discussion about architecture as vehicle for debating conflicting memories, nationhood, citizenship, corruption and new arts forms is unfolding. Ukrainian modernist interpreters were among the most active internationally on social media and have been releasing books with major international publishers. Modernist buildings became popular places for both domestic and international artists to create, for local counterculture to flourish, and for grass-root democratisation and Europeanisation to advance.

Ievgeniia Gubkina will introduce the cultural and political significance of (pre-war) Ukraine with regard to 20th Century heritage. A short experimental film on constructivist and modernist heritage in Kharkiv will be screened to illustrate her lecture. Krista Pikkat will review the protection efforts deployed by UNESCO in Ukraine, as well as those used during armed conflicts more broadly.

Dean Arancha Gonzalez of Sciences Po's Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) and Dean Tommaso Vitale of Sciences Po's Urban School, will offer short remarks.

The discussion will be moderated by Maxime Forest, Senior Researcher at Sciences Po-OFCE and Lecturer at PSIA and Urban School.

This event is co-organised by the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) and the Urban School.

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Biography of Ievgeniia Gubkina:

Ievgeniia Gubkina is an architect, architectural historian, curator of architectural and art projects. Faced with the lack of pluridisciplinary approaches to heritage conservation and contemporary challenges posed to post-soviet cities, she co-founded the NGO Urban Forms Center in Kharkiv, in the context of the democratization and Europeanization process engaged in 2014. 

She is currently research associate at Sciences Po Urban School, hosted with the support of the PAUSE program.