Lecture, reading, talk

Ripped out at the roots. Artists from Berlin and Ukraine in exile

When the Nazis established their dictatorship, many artists – Jews, communists, liberals and others – were sacked as “undesirable elements”. They were banned from working, and persecuted. Thousands of artists were forced into exile. This is vividly illustrated here by the signatures of 43 theatre and film workers from Berlin at the “Exile Wall” in BERLIN GLOBAL.

At BERLIN GLOBAL, Ukrainian artists Yevheniia Havrylenko (curator), Stas Zhyrkov (theatre maker), Inna Vorobets (flautist) and Olena Dombrovska (painter) meet three figures from Berlin’s past (Valeska Gert, Julia Kerr, Anni Albers), represented by Berlin-based art historian Dr. Martina Weinland.

Prices
Regular: 5 Euro
Reduced: 3 Euro

Price info

Tickets can be booked at the box office in the foyer of the Humboldt Forum or online.

Location
The event will take place in the Berlin Room on the 1st floor of the Humboldt Forum. The discussion will be held in German and English.

Duration
2h

Deutsch , Українська

At BERLIN GLOBAL, Ukrainian artists Yevheniia Havrylenko (curator), Stas Zhyrkov (theatre maker), Inna Vorobets (flautist) and Olena Dombrovska (painter) meet three figures from Berlin’s past (Valeska Gert, Julia Kerr, Anni Albers), represented by Berlin-based art historian Dr. Martina Weinland. Using biographical approaches, these protagonists of past and present, those who fled the Nazi regime and those who’ve fled the current Russian invasion, attempt to come to terms with the subject of exile. Almost 90 years separate the two generations of artists, yet many of the questions they struggle with are the same:

How does exile change my work? How do I deal with the feeling that I can change little or nothing? And how can art help me to rediscover my identity and hold onto it despite the changed circumstances?

The event will be accompanied by a dance performance by Dayana Mankovska. Dr. Dorothea Schöne, director of Kunsthaus Dahlem, will be the moderator.

The discussion will be held in German and English.

Participants

Yevheniia Havrylenko (born 1992, Dnipro, Ukraine) is a curator for art projects. Before her forced evacuation from Ukraine in March 2022 due to the ongoing Russian invasion, she worked at the M17 Contemporary Art Center (Kiev). In spring/summer 2022, she was involved as an invited curator in the implementation of the first pan-European Digital Art Fair (EDAF), organised by the V-Art platform. In November 2022, on the initiative of the Deutscher Künstlerbund, she curated the film programme “How does it feel?” at BABYLON cinema (Berlin), which featured works by Ukrainian artists dealing with the theme of life in war. Since June 2022, she has been a guest curator at Kunsthaus Dahlem (Berlin).

Theater director Stas Zhyrkov (born 1986 in Ufa, Bashkortostan) came to Ukraine at the age of five, studied there and was director of the Left Bank Theatre in Kiev until February 2022. The war forced him to emigrate, otherwise he would have had to stay and fight. His most recent play “To take arms against a sea of troubles” was performed at the Berlin Schaubühne in September 2022. The title quotes a passage from Hamlet’s soliloquy “To be or not to be”. Zhyrkov originally wanted to stage this Shakespeare play in Kiev in February 2022, when the Russian invasion began. Now, in exile, he addresses the question of what happens to artists who are forced to take up arms – and what happens to them when they decide not to. The press wrote: “Ukrainian theatre-makers present a disquieting war play at the Berlin Schaubühne”. Zhyrkov left Berlin in January 2023 and now works at a theatre in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Painter and graphic artists Olena Dombrovska (born 1985 in Odessa, Ukraine) is a very well-known artist in Ukraine. She was one of the founders of the organisation KNO Kyiv Non-Objective. When the Russian invasion began, she left Kiev and travelled to various European countries in search of a new place to stay. Though she received considerable support everywhere she went and was offered good job opportunities, she suffered so much from homesickness that after eight months, she decided to return to Ukraine despite her fears of the war there.

Flautist Inna Vorobets (born in Lvivl, Ukraine) began playing the flute at the age of ten. During her studies, she performed with the contemporary music group Meitar Ensemble in Jerusalem, Israel. Since 2013, and before joining the Ukho Ensemble as a solo flautist, Vorobets was piccolo flautist in the INSO Lviv Symphony Orchestra. She also served as principal flautist of the Kiev Symphony Orchestra from 2019 to 2021. Inna Vorobets has received several scholarships and awards, including the 2019-2021 Ukrainian Presidential Scholarship for Young Artists, the 2021 Gaude Polonia Scholarship in Warsaw, 1^st prize at the 2018 Contemporary Music Competition at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and the Meitar Ensemble Scholarship for Outstanding Students.

Dr. Martina Weinland studied art history, German language and literature, and theatre studies at the Free University of Berlin, graduating with a doctorate in 1989. From 1992 to 2017, she was a research assistant at the Stadtmuseum Berlin where she later served as Cultural Heritage Officer from 2018 to 2022.

Dr. Dorothea Schöne is an art historian and the artistic director of Kunsthaus Dahlem. She studied art history, political science and philosophy at the University of Leipzig. She completed her doctorate at the University of Hamburg in 2015 on the topic of “Berlin Post-War Modernism”.

Dayana Mankovska (born in Odesa, Ukraine) started dancing at the age of four in a children’s dance school, after which she continued her studies in contemporary choreography at a university in Kyiv. At the age of 17, after moving to Kyiv, she began to integrate into the cultural society of Ukrainian contemporary dance, forming her artistic thinking and being inspired by Ukrainian dancers. As a result, she became a part of the ПРОcontemporary creative group led by Gala Pekha. After the full-scale invasion, Dayana went to Germany in search of work and artistic projects, became a part of the dance company Of Curious Nature in Bremen, and this summer she participated in La Biennale De Venezia as part of a college under the direction of Wayne McGregor.

Additional biographies

Dancer Valeska Gert (born 1892 in Berlin, died 1978 in Kampen, Sylt) stood for freedom and non-conformity. Her tremendous vitality helped her to survive seven periods of exile before finally returning to Germany and Berlin in 1949 and ultimately settling in Kampen on Sylt in 1951.

Composer Julia Kerr, also Julia Kerwey (born 1898 in Wiesbaden, died 1965 in Berlin) was at the beginning of her career when the threat of persecution by the Nazi regime forced her and her family into exile as early as February 1933. She had to give up her passion for many years in order to work to support her family. It was only several years after the end of the war and after her return to Germany and Berlin that she was able to resume her musical profession.

Textile artist Anni Albers (born 1899 in Berlin, died 1994 in Orange, Connecticut) received her training at the Bauhaus in Weimar. It was only in exile that she found her calling and great opportunities in the freedoms in America. Under no circumstances did she want to return to Germany.

Tage des Exils Berlin. An initiative of the Körber Foundation in cooperation with the Foundation Exile Museum Berlin.

Info & Service

Opening Hours

Mo + Wed – Sun | 10.30 a.m. – 6.30 p.m.
Tue | closed

Last admission is at 5.15 p.m.

Closing times

The exhibition will be closed to the public from 3 p.m. on 6 June 2024. This is due to an internal event. Thank you for your understanding.

Directions

Schlossplatz
10178 Berlin

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Contact

For ticketing and service requests, please contact the Humboldt Forum Visitor Services:
+49 30 9921 189 89
Mo – Fri, 10 a.m.– 6 p.m.