What Shall We Do With These Buildings?

This film was the result of a two-month residency supported by Kharkiv Literary Museum back in September 2021. The focus of my residency was an investigation into the living relationship that we have to our built environment. As the former capital of Soviet Ukraine, I felt this would have a particular resonance in Kharkiv, whose built environment is composed of the patrimony of this defunct regime.

Soviet modernist architecture in the city seemed to stimulate a broad range of responses, from nationalism, soviet nostalgia, concerns over heritage, and conflicting desires for conservation and ‘Ukrainization’. In addition to this research, I embarked on another mode of analysis through movement. This began with a series of workshops that I ran at the Kharkiv School of Architecture teaching movement and sculpture to first year Ukrainian architects. I decided to include dance as a playful counterpoint to the interviews. A way of responding to the aesthetics of this architecture with and through the body.

When we made the film we could never have imagined that the situation would turn out the way it has. Just six months after we left, Russia launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine. Kharkiv, which lies 30km from the Russian border was, and continues to be, one of the worst hit cities. Fortunately everyone who was involved in the film is safe, though most have had to leave the city.

Our first priority has been to use the film in whatever way we can to help the situation on the ground. When Russia invaded, we decided to dedicate proceeds we make from the film to humanitarian aid. Igor Klyuchnik (who dances in the film) has set up a group of volunteers who help evacuate people and bring humanitarian aid to the people of Kharkiv (where the film was shot). Please consider donating to them by following the link below: https://evacuatekharkiv.org/donate

The invasion also completely changed the way that you watch the film. We suddenly realised that we had captured quite a unique moment in time. After the revolution in 2014, the whole of Ukraine, but Kharkiv in particular, had been going through a major cultural revival. People in the city were not only rediscovering their magnificent architectural and literary legacy but also refashioning a new kind of Ukrainian identity. This came to an abrupt halt when Russia invaded in February of 2022. The city is now subjected to merciless Russian shelling with lots of its architecture damaged.

Watching the images of Kharkiv now on the news, it makes me sad that people only know about this city as a victim of Russian aggression. As shelled out, twisted metal and destroyed apartment blocks. That is not a Kharkiv I recognise. Spending two months there back in September 2021, I was fortunate to get a small glimpse into a vibrant, colourful and beautiful city. The film shows Kharkiv as it was flourishing, just before its internal tensions broke out into war. It captures the architecture of a city which is being destroyed.

Oleg Drozdov talks very beautifully at the end of the film about the need for reconstruction being intimately connected to finding a new culture for the next generation. I look forward to the day when these words find a new meaning as we rebuild an independent Ukraine.