On 7 June, Vienna hosted the hybrid festival Ode to Resistance, where Ukrainian rave culture was presented as a form of political resistance. The event was organised by the Ukrainian cultural initiative Kriegsbilder, which has been promoting Ukrainian art and music in Austria since 2022.
The festival opened with a screening of the documentary film What Will You Do When The War Starts (2022) by artist Vladyslav Plisetskyy, a video diary about Kyiv artists in the early days of the full-scale invasion. The programme also featured video works by Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimey, Dedicated to the Youth of the World II, III (2019-2023), a video installation by Anna Potyomkina, Dances at the Dead (2023), and an audio installation by Mark Panghoud, Dad called me a patriot... Not in a good way, created from audio recordings collected by the musician during his military service.
The exhibition space was filled with large-scale photo panels by photographer Yuliya Sudarchykova — a series of artistic reports about Kyiv ravers, shot in 2016–2021.
The musical part was complemented by performances by Ukrainian artists Ivan Skoryna, Katarina Hryvul, Maximilian (DJ MKCMLLN) and Margo Dubovska (DJ Marshtutka).
‘The intertwining of rave and alternative culture is an important cultural phenomenon that has resurfaced in Ukraine since 2014 as a form of resistance to harsh political realities and continues to exist as a method of survival in wartime. The festival showcases these unusual survival strategies as a synthesis of actions deeply rooted in the Ukrainian historical context. The story of Ode to Resistance will be told through the eyes of rave regulars, electronic musicians and young outcasts,’ the organisers note. Kriegsbilder will donate 70% of the proceeds to the Fallout Noise volunteer fund, which covers the urgent needs of soldiers on the front lines.
Kriegsbilder is a self-organised Ukrainian cultural initiative founded in March 2022 in Vienna in response to the full-scale Russian invasion. Its goal is to represent the Ukrainian cultural context abroad through music, visual arts and film screenings.