Office Ukraine Book Presentation & Discussion: ONGOING SOLIDARITY!?
Kärnten Museum, Museumgasse 2, 9021 Klagenfurt
19.05. 2025, 19:00
Panel discussion:
Lukas Baumann (Migration and solidarity researcher), Olia
Fedorova (Artist), Alexandra Schwell (Cultural anthropologist),
Oleksandr Sydorenko (Volunteer first responder)
Moderation:
Matthias Wieser (Media and communications researcher)
Musical accompaniment:
Alma Portič and Anna Bednarchuk
Just a few days after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the initiative Office Ukraine – Shelter for Ukrainian Artists was founded, a platform consisting of tranzit.at (Vienna), Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen (Innsbruck), <rotor> (Graz), and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts and Culture, the Media and Sports (BMWKMS).
As soon as the offices began operating, they could rely on overwhelming support from civil society and agents of the art scene. The Office Ukraine’s work for and with the many Ukrainian artists and cultural workers who found shelter in Austria was and still is only possible through this collective support.
In a world where crises quickly shift public attention, the question arises about endurance of solidarity. How do emotional categories like solidarity lose their strength over time? What mechanisms influence our ability or inability to support urgent causes over the long term? The large-scale war against Ukraine has now lasted more than three years; Whether we can continue to build on solidarity will be decisive both for the fate of Ukraine and for the displaced Ukrainians.Matthias Wieser, media and cultural scientist, will discuss the dynamics of attention economies and the shifting of solidarity from one cause to another with Lukas Baumann, migration and solidarity researcher, Olia Fedorova, artist and staff member of Office Ukraine Graz, Alexandra Schwell, cultural anthropologist, and Oleksandr Sydorenko, volunteer first responder.
The publication Office Ukraine: Two Years of Support for Ukrainian Artists highlights the extensive work of the platform, which was founded in 2022 in response to Russian war aggression, and presents the numerous collaborations with artists and institutions throughout Austria.

© Olia Fedorova