video statement, 2017
Author(s)
Oleksiy Radynski
Within the long-term research itinerary Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–2021), BAK asked artists, philosophers, scholars, and activists from multiple (political) geographies facing contemporary fascisms how they engage with the question of what constitutes non-fascist living.
The responses are 1–5 minute video statements recorded with technology at hand: mobile phones, voice recorders, Skype. These diverse perspectives are published online and screened at performative conferences. Online and offline, they become part of a growing constellation of reflections on ways to think, act, and bring about non-fascist living.
In the waves of devastation as war is waged on Ukraine, we republish the video statement made by Oleksiy Radynski (filmmaker and writer, Kyiv) in 2017.
"Sasha Kolchenko is an anti-fascist from Crimea, Ukraine.
In Spring 2014, he was protesting against the military occupation of Crimea by the Russian troops, aided by the far-right militants.
In May 2014, Kolenchko, together with the filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, was arrested by the occupational forces.
Both were accused of participatiing in the far-right Ukrainian group called the Right Sector.
Kolchenko and Sentsov were put on a show trial in a Russian court.
Both were sentenced to 10 and 20 years in prison, respectively, on fictive charges of terrorism.
The Right Sector, to which they never belonged, is a darling of Russian media.
They utilize it to present the imperialist war in East Ukraine as “anti-fascist struggle.”
Sasha Kolchenko is an anti-fascist jailed for participating in a movement he was struggling against.
This is the punishment for refusing to live a fascist life, a life under military occupation.
Kolchenko and Sentsov live non-fascist lives in Russian prison camps."
More in this edition
For Prospections “Standing With Ukraine. Standing With the Oppressed,” feminist, social researcher, and peace activist Nina Potarska has kindly given us permission to republish her 2016 text “Maidan and After: State of the Ukrainian Left.”
Oleksiy Radynski writes on the fifth day of war from a suburb of Kyiv for a case against the Russian Federation.
It is the thirteenth day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Researcher and art historian Asia Bazdyrieva remains in Ukraine, south of Kyiv with her family. She has shared a diary entry on Instagram for every day of the war so far. Here is her entry for Tuesday 8 March 2022—also International Women’s Day—republished above as images, and below as text-transcript with kind permission of the author.
What follows is a makeshift reading (and listening) list of what we believe are relevant articles and interviews that give historic context on the invasion of Ukraine and how we at BAK—and a broader international left opposing this and all wars—can express solidarity and exert political pressure right now.
We at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, condemn the brutal military invasion of Ukraine, launched by Vladimir Putin.
Within the long-term research itinerary Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–2021), BAK asked artists, philosophers, scholars, and activists from multiple (political) geographies facing contemporary fascisms how they engage with the question of what constitutes non-fascist living.
