Montreal at the Sommet de la nuit | In Ukraine, the underground is resistance

She is a cultural activist. He owns a bar. She lived in Mariupol. Him, in Kyiv. Both worked intensely in the Ukrainian cultural milieu. She by organizing avant-garde artistic events, he by producing shows and rave parties.

Jean-Christophe Laurence
The Press

Overnight, their lives changed. When the Russians attacked their country last February, they were forced to reinvent themselves, like the entire Ukrainian underground scene, which has now dispersed, but is not inactive for all that.

Diana Berg and Andrii Yankovskyi are in Montreal this week to participate in the Sommet de la nuit, a symposium devoted to the culture of “nightlife” in the world. They were invited to a round table on Friday morning to explain how their community was able to adapt and transform itself, in a context that is not conducive to beauty and creation. And that’s exactly what we talked about with them on Wednesday, in a downtown hotel.

In Diana’s case, activities came to an abrupt halt. Mariupol, besieged and bombarded, has become a stricken city, where death lurks at every street corner.

This situation left him with no choice but exile. She has lived as a “nomad” ever since, but points out with satisfaction that her art center, called Platform TU, has been transformed into an air-raid shelter for around fifty residents of the neighborhood stuck in the martyred city.

His team, which has about ten people, has not given up either. “Some deal with evacuations. Others, the safeguard of cultural heritage. Still others do art therapy with young people or raise funds for refugees,” she says, with a touch of pride.

Same topo in Kyiv, where the artistic community bows to the new reality.

More spared than Mariupol, the capital has resumed a semblance of normality for a few weeks, despite the curfew (from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.) and limited hours for the sale of alcohol. Nightclubs and bars have reopened and regained some of their clientele, but now also serve as factories or depots for war material.

This is the case of the HVLV bar (whose name is pronounced “Rvilovey”, which means wavy, in the sense of “wavy”), of which Andrii is co-owner. From the beginning of the conflict, this central place of nightlife and underground in Kyiv was requisitioned by the authorities, transforming itself in spite of itself into a military back room and an air raid shelter.

Another interesting initiative, the HVLV has just launched Fundradio, a digital platform that gives voice to actors in the Ukrainian underground. In a loungy setting, activists and artists come to discuss their reality in a kind of alternative talk show, where the hosts smoke cigarettes and drink beer, all in English for greater international exposure, when not are not just Kyiv DJs spinning records.

Contribuer, à sa façon

Ces reconversions ne sont pas uniques. Diana Berg explique que tous les acteurs du milieu culturel qui sont restés en Ukraine contribuent de près ou de loin à l’effort de guerre, même si beaucoup n’ont jamais tenu d’armes dans leurs mains.

« Il y a des poètes, des photographes, des musiciens, des artistes. Beaucoup se sont enrôlés et se battent réellement sur la ligne de front. Il y a même des soldats de la communauté LGBTQ », dit-elle, avant d’ajouter : « Ce n’est pas lié à la culture, mais on s’en fout. »

On imagine à peine chez nous, dans le cas d’une hypothétique invasion américaine. Les Foufs seraient-elles recyclées en entrepôt pour des drones et des cocktails Molotov ? Loud et FouKi prendraient-ils les armes pour protéger la frontière ? CKUT se transformerait-elle en radio de la résistance ?

Encore une fois, l’exemple ukrainien force l’admiration. Et prouve qu’en temps de guerre, même les plus pacifistes peuvent augmenter le niveau du jeu. Reste à savoir pour combien de temps.

« Je ne pense pas qu’il y ait un scénario où la Russie l’emporte et avale l’Ukraine, conclut Andrii. Les Russes vont tomber et le régime [de Vladimir Poutine] will be destroyed from within and without. The question is: how many Ukrainians will survive until then? The answer is in the hands of our allies and those who fight for freedom. But we will never give up. »

Andrii Yankovskyi, Diana Berg and Dasha Zarovna will participate in a discussion (in English) on Friday, May 20 at 10 a.m. at the Monument-National.

The Montréal au Sommet de la nuit event takes place on May 19 and 20, 2022, as a prelude to the Montréal 24/24 event.