Remembrance Day for the Victims of Communist Repression: A Performative Installation - Instytut Pileckiego

Remembrance Day for the Victims of Communist Repression: a performative installation

19.05.2023, 16.00 - 20.00 | Brandenburger Tor

Every year Ukraine commemorates the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Political Repression of the Communist Regime on the third Sunday of May. For a long time, the stories of the victims have been silenced. Instead, the totalitarian system, which was forced upon Ukraine, wrote its own history permeating not only books but also cityscapes.

After 1945 a similar fate has befallen Berlin. Take a walk through the city and you’ll find spaces depicting dictators as heroes, and a regime responsible for millions of deaths as heaven on earth.

We cordially invite you to join us on May 19 and honor the memory of the victims of the communist regime. Come and visit the performative installation “Remembrance Day for the Victims of Communist Repression” at the Brandenburg Gate on Friday from 16:00 to 20:00. It will be shown outdoors as part of the Pilecki Institute’s Воля UA (Volia) program. The installation points to the most absurd fragments of the urban landscape of Berlin which are still conveying narratives put forward by the communist totalitarian regime. Visitors of the exhibition will learn that even in well-known tourist spots symbols proclaiming "glory to Stalin" can still be spotted.

Additionally, an in-depth lecture on communist crimes in Ukraine will be delivered by Yuriy Shapoval on 6th June in the Pilecki-Institute.