The background to AntiDote
Vlad Troyitskyy, the ideological founder of The GogolFest festival movement, as well as The DAKH Theatre and the dakhabrakha, Dakh Daughters and DakhTrio projects (whose member Sofiya Baskakova opened the conference with a performance), has been organising contemporary art festivals with his team for many years. The basis was interdisciplinarity and a keen sense of time: what is relevant, what hinders development? Since 2016, GogolFest has gone beyond the borders of Kyiv. The festival travelled to Ivano-Frankivsk. The name Porto Franko reinforced one of the meanings of the city as a gateway to Europe (and to the Carpathians). The festival then became virtually itinerant and, in the years leading up to the full-scale invasion, spread to various Ukrainian cities: Vinnytsya, Mariupol, Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, and Dnipro. It was a time of decentralisation, so there was a need to unite the regions through culture. I remember how in 2019, the singers Dakh Daughters said from the stage of the Mariupol festival: ‘You are our outpost, our fortress.’ And in just two years, everything changed completely.
The term ‘post-truth’ has become established in the Western information field — this is how our era is described, where it is not so important whether something happened, but rather how it is presented and how much attention it receives on social media. Fake news and manipulation, for example, surrounding the full-scale war in Ukraine, have also gained new opportunities and a larger audience.
The AntiDote.Unity conference was initiated by the GogolFest team because of the need to unite. The word ‘antidote’ means ‘counterpoison’ — counteracting the manipulations that Russia is using in its attempts to destroy Ukrainian identity at all levels.
During the conference, one panel was devoted to the question of what Ukraine's newest myth should be and how it should change in light of the war. Professor and myth design expert Rena Marutyan and Vlad Troyitskyy took part in the discussion.
"I started thinking about the manipulation and disinformation that is destroying Western society, the European world, and our country from within. Unfortunately, these manipulative practices are very effective, and no effective countermeasures have been developed. When you directly refute this manipulation and disinformation, you only reinforce it. Therefore, direct countermeasures do not work. The idea is that you can vaccinate people through art. It reveals and refutes such manipulations, allowing critical thinking to come into play," says Troyitskyy.
According to him, the danger is that manipulative practices fundamentally devalue values, which are the foundation of human nature. And this is spreading throughout the world. While the far right and far left are shaking up the world, the centre remains aloof.
Ukrainians abroad as a resource
According to various estimates, there are six to eight million Ukrainians abroad (for example, the National Bank of Ukraine says there were almost seven million as of April 2025). Reflecting on past projects, Troyitskyy says he did not understand what a great resource Ukrainian communities abroad really are.
"In our projects, we focused on communicating with foreign audiences: Americans, Germans, various countries. But the main task was to communicate, add an emotional connection, and then add some kind of message. And when there were Ukrainians, they were more like added value. Now I realise that, unfortunately, I didn't feel that there was any strategy for uniting Ukrainians abroad."
Millions of our people around the world are a powerful force that can advocate for Ukrainian interests, remind people of their rights, and create a completely different new history for Ukraine. But the important question here is how to unite these people, what messages to convey, and how to communicate.
"We have been using the concept of victimhood for almost three years. Unfortunately, it worked in the first year, less so in the second, hardly at all in the third, and not at all in the fourth, because people generally dislike victims. They try to avoid this," Troyitskyy continues.
Ukraine's new myth
"It is impossible to impose a myth — this is not an authoritarian country like Russia, which imposes this myth and simply embodies it. It doesn't work. It is impossible in our tradition. We understand that this is a fundamentally free country. Perhaps, for me — as pompous as it may sound — it is almost the last place of true democracy, true understanding of freedom, energy of humanity and humanism. But there is a feeling that Ukrainian society, both in Ukraine and abroad, is already pregnant. And now we need to give birth correctly, to finally give birth to a child to show to the world — to develop this strategy," says Troyitskyy.
Myth design expert Rena Marutyan agrees with his thesis: in her opinion, Ukraine is already ready to build a new myth about itself. And it should not be based on the victimhood and image of a country that is always with its hand outstretched. In the scientific sphere, Marutyan and her colleagues have been working with various audiences for several years: the military, officials, volunteers, artists, and educators.
Art is the most powerful player in shaping ideas, products, and ideological influences on public consciousness. It has a sensitive nature that affects our consciousness. Narrative is facts, emotions, and judgements. The question is: what do we put into it? What emotions? What judgements? Values. The foundations of this narrative should influence the emotions of the people who perceive it. Because the goal of myth and narrative is for you to join it. For you to become part of it," says the professor.
She remains part of the team that believes that Ukraine's new myth must be successful, victorious, and affirmative, and that we need to find new channels to convey our messages both within the country and beyond its borders.
Marutyan considers the documentary anthology War Through the Eyes of Animals by directors Svyatoslav Kostyuk and Dmytro Tuzov, where the story of the war is told through the fate of animals, to be an example of how else to influence the empathy of European viewers. And while not everyone in European countries is ready to see and perceive Ukraine through the eyes of the military, everyone has pets. Rena Marutyan recalled that after the screenings, people often wanted to leave donations for Ukraine, as they empathised with the events and saw them from a different perspective.
As the speakers emphasised, entertainment is often the most effective medium. But this is not about entertainment as such, but about more creative channels for conveying meaning. Nor does this negate the need for more serious discussions, workshops and analysis.
"Artists can add emotional images that will move the public. You see, entertainment methods have long been more than just entertainment. They are a method of communication. It is easier to reach people, their situations, and their emotions this way. When we engage in an entertainment programme, even a serious one, we activate more than just rational thinking. We open ourselves up emotionally. And this is the path to empathy and cooperation," continues Rena Marutyan.
Both Vlad Troyitskyy and Rena Marutyan emphasise that a system is needed that combines cultural diplomacy, education, media, artists, analysts, communicators, activists and, most importantly, the community itself — the people for whom all this is happening. "Because no state, even with a super-powerful budget, can invent a real, living narrative without people. Without hearing what they say, how they feel, what they believe in."
On dignity through art
Zenyk Art Gallery was one of the partners of the conference. Gallery curator Khrystyna Berehovska believes that it is time to talk about Ukraine's dignity and cultural wealth. It is also important to return to Ukrainians the cultural heritage that Russia has appropriated for many years. In particular, the gallery has one of the originals of Ilya Repin's painting "Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks" (the artist created several versions during his lifetime).
“Respect for the world begins with respect for oneself. The myth that should exist for Ukrainians in Ukraine is one thing. For Ukrainians around the world, it is another. And for the world about Ukrainians, it is yet another,” says Berehovska.
Ya Gallery founder Pavlo Hudimov reminds us that it is impossible to pigeonhole an artist and dictate what they should create and what message they should convey. He mentioned contemporary artist Dmytro Moldovanov (one of the leaders of the so-called new naïve art movement), who does not work with propaganda at all, but expresses his understanding of the war, often in an ironic style.
"When I hear the phrase 'art as a tool', I feel a sense of protest. Art is an organic process of expression by an individual creative entity. We often confuse creativity, marketing and art. Sometimes they can merge into one, but in general they are extremely different," says Hudimov. He also reminds us that what Ukraine can truly preserve is creative freedom, because there is no such thing as ‘cultural management’.
“Culture is not controlled by anyone; it is a living organism that grows and can even act contrary to our desires, including those of the state and state policy. This does not mean that it has to be something that destroys from within, but it certainly shakes up all systems,” he adds.
Joint efforts of the cultural community
After the AntiDote conference, its participants developed a joint work plan that they can recommend to the Ministry of Culture.
“Based on the results of discussions and practical work in mini-groups, a number of key areas have been identified that require systematic support and further development. At the heart of many of them is the need for a new framework for the Ukrainian myth. This myth should not be one-dimensional. It should unite without unifying, leaving room for complexity, diversity, pain and love.
We see Ukraine as a polyphonic territory with no single centre but many points of strength; a land of the last romantics who still believe in meaning, even in the darkest times; a country of the first warriors who fight not only for territory but also for values; a space of inspiration that lives on despite everything," the document says.
Among the main challenges, the participants highlighted:
- the fragmentation of Ukrainian society, both between regions and between those in Ukraine and those abroad;
- the lack of a common contemporary framework of identity that would combine values, meanings, actions and ideas about a shared future;
- insufficient integration of culture, education, and civic participation as systems that should shape and support the community;
- weak coordination between institutions, initiatives, and opinion leaders working in related fields.
The AntiDote.Unity conference was only the first step in forming a common circle of cultural environments. Next, the participants decided on the following plans:
- to create a communication platform and an information bot that will provide advice to proactive Ukrainians abroad: where to start, how to gather a community, where to seek support, who to contact;
- quickly collect data and respond to community requests;
- cooperate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in particular, in terms of recommendations for diplomatic institutions);
- initiate communication between local communities and build bridges of interaction between regions;
- disseminate case studies of cooperation and development of local initiatives that are already working in Ukraine through the experience of GOGOLFEST Inaculation;
- create communication algorithms and implement practices of working with memory in Ukraine in cooperation with the Cultural Forces of Ukraine.
The AntiDote.Unity conference was held in partnership with The Ukrainian Catholic University and The Sheptytsky Centre, GogolFest, The Kozytskyi Foundation, Zenyk Art Gallery, and The Kyiv School of Public Administration named after Nyzhnyy.