[oberlist] Petition for Solidarity Support of the Visual Culture Research Center at NaUKMA

[Vasyl Cherepanyn]

*Petition for Solidarity Support of the Visual Culture Research Center at
NaUKMA*



On February 10th, 2012, the President of the National University of
Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Serhiy Kvit banned the exhibition of the Visual Culture
Research Center “Ukrainian Body” that explored the issues of corporality in
contemporary Ukrainian society. Serhiy Kvit explained his decision in the
following way: “It’s not an exhibition, it’s shit”. After the act of
censorship, which drew a wide response in the Ukrainian and foreign media,
the President of NaUKMA has initiated a number of bureaucratic restrictions
against the Visual Culture Research Center as the organizers of the
exhibition. On February 23rd the Academic Council of the university
led by Serhiy
Kvit passed a resolution to bar the activities of VCRC.



On March 12th, the President of NaUKMA Serhiy Kvit made a resolution on the
prohibition of all events and exhibitions in the Old Academic
building, where the Visual Culture Research Center has been working since
2008, referring to the building's “condition conducive to accident”.
Despite its “accident rate” the galleries of Old Academic building are
shortly to be used as the library archives. Hence the President of NaUKMA
closed the VCRC's exhibition “Ukrainian Body” at first, then the Center
itself, and eventually the premises where the VCRC is conducting
events, announcing their “condition conducive to accident”.



We consider such gestures unacceptable acts of censorship against public
dialogue on crucial social and political problems. The present sanctions
are blocking the Visual Culture Research Center's current and
future activities. The Center has become a milieu that provides
critical thought and alternative knowledge for NaUKMA community and beyond.
One can see the scope of Center’s activity on its webpage
http://vcrc.ukma.kiev.ua/uk/archive/, it includes many
international conferences and seminars, exhibitions, presentations and
talks, and other events that attracted many students and broad public.
NaUKMA has already received letters of support, asking to resume the
Center's work in full scope, among them from Slavoj Žižek, Eric Fassin,
David Elliott, Aleksander Kwasniewski, Serhiy Yekelchyk, Tarik Cyril Amar,
John-Paul Himka, Aleksandr Bikbov, Michel Onfray, Artur Zmijewski, Vitaly
Chernetsky, Oksana Timofeeva, Mikhail Mayatskiy, Sara Goodman, Alek Epstein
and others.



*We **call for the immediate restoration of academic and artistic freedom
at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and **ask the President of NaUKMA Serhiy Kvit to
resume the Center's work in full scope in its current working space.*



Please join this initiative to support the activities of the Visual Culture
Research Center. Please sign the petition at
http://www.change.org/petitions/serhiy-kvit-the-president-of-national-university-of-kyiv-mohyla-academy-petition-for-support-of-the-visual-culture-research-center-at-naukmawith
your name, title and affiliation or write your own letter to the
President of NaUKMA Serhiy Kvit (kwit at ukma.kiev.ua) asking to resume the
Center's activity in the Old Academic building.



Please spread this petition.



For more information about the situation, please read the following:


http://ua.euronews.net/2012/02/14/ukraine-modern-art-controversy/

http://derstandard.at/1329870496526/Ende-eines-Kulturzentrums-Kiew-Kein-Raum-fuer-den-ukrainischen-Koerper

http://ukraineanalysis.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/sex-nationalism-and-academic-freedom-the-controversy-at-kyiv-mohyla/



                Thank you for your attention and support!





*Timothy Snyder*, professor of history at Yale University, USA

*Artur Żmijewski*, сurator of the 7th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art,
Poland

*Slavoj Žižek*, social philosopher and culture theorist, the president of
the Institute of Sociology, Slovenia

*Judith Butler*, Professor of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature,
University of California, Berkeley, USA

*David Elliott*, curator of the First International Biennial of
Contemporary Art Arsenale 2012, Great Britain

*Aleksander Kwasniewski*, the President of Poland (1995 – 2005)

*Jacques Rancière*, philosopher, Emeritus professor at the University of
Paris VIII, France

*Alexander Bikbov*, deputy director of the Centre for Contemporary
Philosophy and Social Sciences at Moscow State University, associate fellow
of the Maurice Halbwachs Research Centre, France / Russia

*Serhy Yekelchyk*, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Victoria,
Canada

*Éric Fassin*, Professeur agrégé, Département de sciences sociales, École
normale supérieure (Ulm), France

*Michel Onfray*, french philosopher and writer, founder of the Popular
University of Caen, France

*John-Paul Himka*, Professor, Department of History and Classics,
University of Alberta, USA

*Oxana Timofeeva*, editor of the magazine “New Literary Observer”, “Chto
Delat’?” group, Russia

*Jan T. Gross*, Professor of History, Princeton University, USA

*Mikhail Maiatsky*, PhD, professor at the Cultural Studies department,
Faculty of Philosophy, Higher School of Economics, Russia

*Michael Burawoy*, professor at the University of California, Berkeley,
President of the International Sociological Association, USA

*Daniel J. Walkowitz*, Professor of History, Professor of Social & Cultural
Analysis, New York University, USA

*Genevève Fraisse*, philosophe, directrice de recherche au CNRS,
enseignante à l'Institut Politique de Paris (Sciences-po), ancienne
déléguée interministérielle, ancienne députée européenne, France

*Dmytro Horbachov*, PhD in Art History, professor, laureate of Ohienko
prize, Biletsky prize, Ukraine

*Vladimir Malakhov*, Institute of Philosophy of Russian Academy of
Sciences, Center for Citizenship and Identity Studies, Russia

*Marko Bojcun*, Senior lecturer, European Studies and International
Relations, London Metropolitan University, Great Britain

*Jared McBride*, Ph.D. Candidate, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

*Rose-Marie Lagrave*, Directrice d'études à l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes à
Paris, France

*Don Kalb*, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

*Roman Cybriwsky*, PhD, Professor of Geography and Urban Studies, Temple
University, Philadelphia, USA

*Vitaly Chernetsky*, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Miami University, USA

*Tarik Cyril Amar*, Assistant Professor, Russia and the Soviet Union,
Department of History, Columbia University, USA

*Sara Goodman*, Centre for Gender Studies, Lund University, Sweden

*Ginanne Brownell*, journalist, “International Herald Tribune/New York
Times<http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch?query=ginanne+brownell&more=date_all>
”, “The Times of
London<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/sitesearch.do?querystring=ginanne+brownell&p=tto&pf=all&bl=on>
”, “Open Democracy <http://www.opendemocracy.net/authors/ginanne_brownell>”,
London, UK

*Maiju Lehto*, University of Helsinki, Aleksanteri institute, Filnand

*Alexei Penzin*, research associate at the Institute of Philosophy of the
Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia

*Alek D. Epstein*, PhD, Department of Sociology, Political Science and
Communication, Open University of Israel, the Moscow School of Social and
Economic Sciences, Israel

*Vlad Sofronov*, philosopher, publicist, art critic, Russia

*Heribert Hansen*, Member of Kunstverein e.V. Neustadt an der Weinstraße,
Member of German-Ukrainian Society Rhein-Neckar e.V. Heidelberg, Germany

*Oleksandr Soloviov*, art critic, contemporary art curator, Ukraine

*Liudmyla Gordeladze*, director of “Zhovten” Cinema, Ukraine

*Grzegorz Rossolinski-Liebe*, graduated from the Cultural Studies faculty
at Viadrina European University in Frankfurt, Germany

*Andriy Zayarnyuk*, Assistant Professor, Department of History, The
University of Winnipeg, Canada

*Delphine Bechtel*, Associate professor, University Paris 4 Sorbonne, France

*David Miller*, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Fine Art, University of
Lethbridge, Canada

*Martin Pollack*, Schriftsteller und Übersetzer, Österreich

*Katharina Raabe*, Lektorin für osteuropäische Literaturen im Suhrkamp
Verlag, Germany

*Serhiy Kudelia*, visiting scholar, George Washington University, USA

*Olexandra Hrycak*, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Reed
College, Portland, Oregon, USA

*Per Anders Rudling*, Ph.D, Historisches Institut,
Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald, Germany

*Dmitry Vilensky*, artist, editor of the paper “Chto Delat’?”, member of
the editorial board of the “Art Journal”, Russia

*Sébastien Gobert*, Journalist, Radio France Internationale, France

*António Eduardo Mendonça*, researcher of the Centro de Estudos Soviéticos
e Pós-Soviéticos, Lisboa, Portugal

*Andriy Mokrousov*, editor of the “Critique” magazine, Ukraine

*Leszek Jazdzewski*, LIBERTÉ! Editor in chief, Lodz, Poland

*Natasa Bodrozic*, curator, Zagreb, Croatia

*Vladimir Us*, director de proiect “Revista la PLIC”, Moldova Young Artists
Association "Oberliht", Moldova

*Anton Shekhovtsov*, PhD in Political Science, University of Northampton, UK

*Erzsébet Szalai*, sociologist, Corvinus University of Budapest, University
of West Hungary (Sopron), Hungary

*Tamás Krausz*, historian, professor of Russian Studies and chairman of the
department of East European History at the Eötvös Loránd University
(Budapest), editor in chief of “Eszmélet” magazine, Hungary

*Mátyás Benyik*, economist, president of ATTAC, Hungary

*Selin Çağatay*, PhD Candidate, Central European University, Hungary

*G. M. Tamás*, the Institute of Philosophy of the Hungarian Academy of
Sciences, Visiting Professor at Central European University (Budapest),
Hungary

*Eva and Franco Mattes*, visual artists, New York, USA

*Ilya Kukulin*, deputy director of the Department for Cultural Projects of
the Philosophy Faculty, National Research University “Higher School of
Economics”, Russia

*Péter Farkas*, economist, CSc, ATTAC, Hungary

*Fırat Duruşan*, Teaching Assistant and PhD Candidate, Department of
Political Science, Ankara University, Turkey

*Elena Sorokina*, curator, Ukraine

*Judith Schwentner*, Member of Austrian Parliament, the Greens, Austria

*Zofia Waślicka*, Warsaw University, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La
Défense, Poland / France

*Taras Polataiko*, Professor, Department of Fine Art, University of
Lethbridge, Canada

*Linda Norris*, “Riverhill” collaborative with museums firm, USA

*Yasmine Tremblay*, Assistant Director, Le Mois de la Photo à
Montréal, Canada

*Piotr Piotrowski*, Professor Ordinaries, Art History Department, Adam
Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland

*Bohdana Kostyuk*, Slavic philologist, journalist, Ukraine

*Wojciech Przybylski*, “Res Publica Nowa”, Poland

*Svitlana Oleshko*, director of the theatre studio “Arabesky”, Ukraine

*Iryna Magdysh*, Art Council “Dialogue”, Ukraine

*Joanna Nuckowska*, “Nowy Teatr”, Warsaw, Poland

*Dmytro Petrenko*, Associate Professor at the Theory and History of
Culture, Department of Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine

*Marek Wasilewski*, “Czas Kultury”, Poland

*Mateusz Luft*, “Kontakt”, Poland

*Marek Łuszczyna*, “Bluszcz“, Poland

*Łukasz Jasina*, “Kultura Liberalna”, Poland

*Olexander Sych*, “Istorychna panorama“, Ukraine

*Khrystyna Chushak*, PhD Candidate, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

*Artur Rudzycky*, art and literature historian, President of the Ukrainian
Association of Press Publishers and Distributors, Ukraine

-- 
Vasyl Cherepanyn
PhD, Cultural Studies Department,
Director of Visual Culture Research Center
National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
http://vcrc.ukma.kiev.ua/uk/
Old Academic Building, 1 st floor

2 Skovorody Street
04655 Kyiv Ukraine

If you have come here to help me, then don't waste your time. But if you
have come here, because your liberation is bound up with mine, then come,
let us join in the struggle together - Australian Aborigene Activists
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