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| Photo: Matthias Rude / Jungewelt |
Unsurprisingly, partners in this anti-communist project are the the Federal
Foreign Office and the Ukrainian Institute in Berlin.
According to a report by Matthias Rude published on “Jungewelt”,
the exhibition's curator is Andrij Budnyk, a professor of graphic
design at the National University of Culture and Arts in Kyiv, who has
produced anti-communist posters as early as the early 1990s. In 2022, he
founded the group "Creative Resistance": he counts 650 people, 1,000
posters, and 100 exhibitions worldwide - now also "at one of the oldest
universities in Europe."
Sixteen
posters are on display from the group, whose aim, according to the
exhibition booklet, is to show "patriotism" and to "morally support"
Ukrainian soldiers. One of them depicts Ukrainian writers Taras
Shevchenko, Ivan Franko and Lesya Ukrainka with rifles and in modern
military uniforms; above them is the inscription: "Slava Ukrajini!
Herojam Slava!" The battle cry of the OUN-Bandera fascists - banned
during the Soviet era - has been the official salute of the Ukrainian
army since 2018. In May 2022, members of the group photographed
themselves in Kyiv in front of this poster with the red and black flag
of the fascist Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) - Budnyk uploaded the
pictures to Instagram.
In addition, 20 works by graphic design students from Kiev are presented. They show soldiers in kitschy, heroic poses, such as the commander Dmitro Kotsiubailo of the "Right Sector", known by his battle name "Da Vinci" . In the photo that was obviously used as a template for the poster, he poses with a rifle in front of a portrait of Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera. Between blue and yellow flags, the red and black UPA flag, which the "Right Sector" is using again today, can also be seen on this poster.
Another print depicts a cockroach with a hammer and sickle on a timeline that begins in 1961, the year the Wall was built, and ends in the late 1980s, against a black, red and gold background - as well as a combat boot, the wearer of which is apparently ready to crush the animal. The GDR as a pest? Cockroaches are adaptable, almost "impossible to eradicate" - like socialism, the organizers explained to junge Welt . "Like cockroaches," the Soviet Union spread "dirt and disease," claimed the artist Renata Rakhimova. As the Russian army, "armed with totalitarian rhetoric," continues to advance further west, "anti-communist propaganda is becoming more and more necessary."
The Ukrainian Institute simply explains that in the spirit of "artistic freedom" it "does not intervene in the content by censoring it." The Foreign Office also has no comment on the content. When asked, it only says that it will support the Ukrainian Institute with 200,000 euros in 2024 - but that the poster exhibition will be "implemented independently by the project partner together with the University of Tübingen." The latter - like many other universities - has already shown an exhibition this year with "Unissued Diplomas" that honors the soldier Maxim Vasilishin, who was a member of the 12th Special Brigade "Azov" and another military unit with fascist connections ("Carpathian Sich"). "The Price of Freedom" will be freely accessible in the Tübingen University Library until December 22nd.
In addition, 20 works by graphic design students from Kiev are presented. They show soldiers in kitschy, heroic poses, such as the commander Dmitro Kotsiubailo of the "Right Sector", known by his battle name "Da Vinci" . In the photo that was obviously used as a template for the poster, he poses with a rifle in front of a portrait of Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera. Between blue and yellow flags, the red and black UPA flag, which the "Right Sector" is using again today, can also be seen on this poster.
Another print depicts a cockroach with a hammer and sickle on a timeline that begins in 1961, the year the Wall was built, and ends in the late 1980s, against a black, red and gold background - as well as a combat boot, the wearer of which is apparently ready to crush the animal. The GDR as a pest? Cockroaches are adaptable, almost "impossible to eradicate" - like socialism, the organizers explained to junge Welt . "Like cockroaches," the Soviet Union spread "dirt and disease," claimed the artist Renata Rakhimova. As the Russian army, "armed with totalitarian rhetoric," continues to advance further west, "anti-communist propaganda is becoming more and more necessary."
The Ukrainian Institute simply explains that in the spirit of "artistic freedom" it "does not intervene in the content by censoring it." The Foreign Office also has no comment on the content. When asked, it only says that it will support the Ukrainian Institute with 200,000 euros in 2024 - but that the poster exhibition will be "implemented independently by the project partner together with the University of Tübingen." The latter - like many other universities - has already shown an exhibition this year with "Unissued Diplomas" that honors the soldier Maxim Vasilishin, who was a member of the 12th Special Brigade "Azov" and another military unit with fascist connections ("Carpathian Sich"). "The Price of Freedom" will be freely accessible in the Tübingen University Library until December 22nd.
