Besides severe civilian and military casualties, Ukrainians are worried about the future of their cultural institutions. Museums, libraries, theatres, historical sites and monuments have already been destroyed, explained to the Homework ethnologist Oleksandr Butsenko, senior researcher at the National Academy of Arts in kyiv, during a public videoconference. Not to mention bearers of living heritage, people exiled or simply dead.
Mr. Butsenko tries to do what is necessary to safeguard heritage assets. The task is enormous. The means are lacking. “We would need protective equipment for historical monuments, for works. Some have already been removed. But in most museums, the works have remained in place, although the staff are now working to shelter them as much as possible.
For the ethnologist, the situation is reminiscent of elements of a cultural war such as Europe experienced during the conflict of 1939-1945. “I never thought it was possible to repeat that! Museums, like all other institutions in society, were taken by surprise. Culture, he insists, is the foundation of Ukrainian society, which is made up of several cultural layers. While digging trenches, volunteers found archaeological fragments, he explains for the anecdote, including a shark tooth more than 50,000 years old.
“The destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage, its assets and its values, is a way of erasing Ukraine as a sovereign state, a way of eliminating the past as much as the future”, insists Oleksandr Butsenko, pleading for urgent international aid.
Targets?
The duty asked him if, from his privileged point of view as an observer, it was possible to affirm that cultural destruction is targeted by the Russian army. “I couldn’t say,” he says, while emphasizing that the aggression is incredibly powerful. Mr. Butsenko specifies that “cultural centres, theaters and several museums served as a distribution point to supply the defenders with clothing. But not only cultural centers. It is very difficult to understand all these activities. In other words, cultural buildings may, in several cases, he says, have been directly targeted. “We can’t rebuild everything. He worries, among many other things, about imposing masterpieces of Bauhaus-style architecture.
What have been the worst cultural heritage losses to date? “The government is trying to preserve and collect as much information about the losses as possible. We are hoping for donations to protect the property. So far, several historic churches have been destroyed. Museums. Libraries. cultural centers. »
Laurier Turgeon, professor of ethnology and history at Laval University, continues. His counterparts in kyiv need technical support, he says. Hurry up.
Oleksandr Butsenko hopes that once the collections are safe, they can be presented abroad, as an affirmation of the existence of Ukraine. “Why not in Canada? “, he asks.
“We have a difficult day today [mercredi] in kyiv”, explains the ethnologist, in English. “There have been alerts, but we can walk. His colleague Valentyna Demian, historian and cultural heritage expert at the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, was unable, despite her efforts, to establish communication with Quebec within the framework of this virtual meeting which took place at the initiative of the Cultural Heritage Institute and the Arts-Cultures-Societies Research Center of Laval University.