We at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, condemn the brutal military invasion of Ukraine, launched by Vladimir Putin.
In these dark days, we stand in solidarity with the millions of residents of Ukraine whose lives are endangered and irrevocably torn apart. We invite Dutch, European, and international cultural communities to join us in taking urgent action—together wherever and however possible—in support of the cultural and academic communities impacted by this tragedy. We are looking for ways of repurposing, redirecting, and redistributing resources in acts of tactical solidarity.
We stand with all subjected to the inhumane conditions of this war. We also solidarize with the anti-war and pro-democracy movements in Russia and Belarus, and with anti-imperialist struggles everywhere.
1. EMERGENCY BAK FELLOWSHIP
Emergency BAK Fellowship for Ukrainian cultural workers in need, in collaboration with countries neighbouring with Ukraine and in joint efforts with institutions in the Netherlands, including Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht; Rijksakademie, Amsterdam; Framer Framed, Amsterdam; and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.
2. BAK STUDIES: ART AS POLITICS, A FUNDRAISER FOR UKRAINE
BAK Studies: Art as Politics, A Fundraiser for Ukraine (22, 24, 29, and 31 March, and 5 April 2022, 18.30–21.00 hrs CET/CEST via Zoom). Further fundraising BAK Studies to be announced soon.
3. PROSPECTIONS, BAK’S ONLINE FORUM FOR TACTICAL SOLIDARITIES
Prospections, BAK’s online forum, provides the ongoing publication of material such as texts, documentation, and live online events that offer context and insights to radical resistance to the war on Ukraine, by means of publishing contributions by Ukrainian culture workers. This is a humble framework to think along with, develop, learn from, and support the work of artists, thinkers, and activists in this time of emergency in Ukraine.
4. LOCAL (UTRECHT AND THE NETHERLANDS-BASED) SOLIDARITY ACTIONS AND EVENTS
BAK actively seeks to collaborate with other institutions in Utrecht and the Netherlands and offers to share our resources (knowledge, space) and network for these collaborations.
One example is the initiative ????rtforUkraine, a nationwide campaign organized by the Dutch cultural field. From Friday 4–Sunday 6 March 2022, entrance to BAK’s exhibition No Linear Fucking Time is on a “pay-what-you-can” basis with all proceeds going toward Giro555| Stichting Samenwerkende Hulporganisaties.
5. HARVESTING RELEVANT LINKS AND INFORMATION ON THE SITUATION IN UKRAINE
Together with colleagues of Willem de Koning Academy and Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam, BAK has set up the collective Ukraine Solidarity Link Farm, a broad-ranging and constantly evolving (non-exhaustive) resource on how to act and inform ourselves from here in the Netherlands. You are invited to contribute any information that seems relevant. This is an open-source list that is being added to, discussed, and edited as we go.
HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
Giro 999/Stichting Vluchteling, The Hague
Donate for emergency aid such as medical supplies and foodsteun.vluchteling.nl
Ukraine Humanitarian Fund
Donate to the UN Crisis Relief’s country-based pooled fundcrisisrelief.un.org
Donations for Ukraine docs.google.com/document/d/15eTsCgyH8T3OJSka3UFnw5-XgMu40E74d6Sqg4IxRHw/mobilebasic?fbclid=IwAR0tvtt1CJe3I7UAokVBxHbjVxMb9asL_i4TvlUl5fL-HJ4zoqaSDv6mxU4
Google doc of verified charities and donation-based NGOs
Ukrainian community-based feminist, queer, youth, disability, and Roma organizations
Donate docs.google.com/document/d/17YU5_GHd2_jPddqbstlLFzy-KGJoSJio1GTO6D6j6K8/edit#heading=h.dcbnsa3gkhu8
Google doc listing resources, legal and housing support etc, for BIPOC refugees fleeing war
Black, Indigenous, and People of Color refugees docs.google.com/document/d/19zo8AbuysWrBVN6uD0UYOVt358ZZULIw9A4oYEUxz0c/mobilebasic?fbclid=IwAR0XBFNCgM9Gp3CIFXFCGZ221AS1m2I4zSjJA5myyt7HgGa8Cw66R05kauw#h.l3wrgt4s7h2v
EMERGENCY RESOURCES FOR CULTURAL, ACADEMIC, AND ACTIVIST WORKERS
Kyiv Biennial Emergency Support Initiative
Ukrainian Emergency Art Fund
Artist at Risk Provide Emergency Relocation Resources for Artists and Cultural Workers from Ukraine.
Read more
Resources for Artists and Scholars Forced to Flee Ukraine, Art Margins
Office Ukraine. Shelter for Ukrainian Artists, initiated by tranzit.at coordinates various civil society initiatives and acts as liaison between Austrian institutions and cultural workers from Ukraine.
European Culture of Solidarity: Ukraine Edition, European Cultural Foundation
OPEN LETTERS, STATEMENTS, PETITIONS FROM OTHER CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS/NETWORKS
Cultural Workers Against the Ongoing War in Ukraine
We invite you sign and support their open letter here.
Matter of Art
L’internationale confederation
“Never Again War!” Read their statement here. Sign their petition “Art World: Oppose Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine!” here.
European Alternatives
War in Ukraine. Read what European Alternatives are doing here.
DiEM25
Stop the War in Ukraine. Read more.
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.
