On 21 February 2025, on the eve of the third anniversary of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Käte Hamburger Kolleg inherit. heritage in transformation invites you to the film screening "Войси з Бахмута" / "Voice Messages from Bakhmut" (Ukraine, Lithuania, 2023) at Kino Central Berlin.
Dr. des. Elisaveta Dvorakk, Research Coordinator | Transforming Value at the Käte Hamburger Centre for Advanced Study inherit. heritage in transformation at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Michelle Mantel
Imagine receiving a voice message directly from the war zone, straight from the front, perhaps from a loved one. You hear what is happening there at that very moment. But was it perhaps the last contact? What comes next, what remains? In this country, such a situation is almost unimaginable for many - in Ukraine, it is a reality. Ukraine has been fighting back against the Russian invasion for almost three years.
The short film "Войси з Бахмута" / "Voice Messages from Bakhmut" (Ukraine, Lithuania, 2023) captures this reality. The film tells a story set in the year 2022 in Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. The film constructs a deeply personal and haunting soundscape of war through real-time voice messages from a correspondent stationed in a town on the frontline.
At the inherit event "Soundscapes of War - Listening to the Lost Heritage", the short film will be presented and then discussed together with researchers and film and media professionals. The event will take place on 21 February 2025 from 3-5 pm at Kino Cental (Rosenthaler Str. 39, 10178 Berlin). Places are still available.
Poster „Soundscapes of War - Listening to the Lost Heritage“
Franziska Blume, inherit. heritage in transformation
Since 2024, the inherit. heritage in transformation research group has been investigating how heritage - or rather "heritage" - is produced, negotiated and changed in different contexts. The research and its results are presented and publicised in experimental academic and artistic formats. "With the presentation of the short film and the subsequent discussion, we want to provide deep insights into the experience of war and encourage a critical dialogue about memory and resistance," says event organiser Dr. des. Elisaveta Dvorakk, organiser of the event.
The event is part of the thematic line „Transforming Value“ and brings two current fellows of inherit. heritage in transformation – Daina Pupkevičiūtė and Ganna Liulikova- into a dialogue with Valentina Zalevska, the director of the Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin. The director of the short film, Ihor Babaiev, will be digitally connected. Daina Pupkevičiūtė was involved in the short film as composer and sound director. In her fellowship project "RE/WORLDING - An Inquiry into Wounded Landscapes" at inherit, she is researching how experiences of conflict and war manifest themselves in acoustic, visual and spatial dimensions in the landscape. "The event opens up a critical interdisciplinary perspective on the auditory traces of war", emphasises Dvorakk, "It encourages reflection on the current transformation and loss of individual and collective heritage in times of armed conflict".
The BMBF-funded Käte Hamburger Centre for Advanced Study in the Humanities inherit. heritage in transformation aims to turn research in the field of "cultural heritage" and heritage studies on its head: With a new form of heritage studies, the research group at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin focuses on humanities perspectives on global social upheaval processes. Since 2024, the Centre, together with international fellows, has been exploring the question of how "heritage" is produced, negotiated and changed in different contexts. It also scrutinises the role nature plays in shaping and changing heritage and how societies around the world deal with controversial cultural assets or the memory of crimes against humanity. The Centre's research and its findings are presented and made public in experimental academic and artistic formats. The research group is headed by the art and visual historian Prof. Dr. Eva Ehninger and the social anthropologist Prof. Dr. Sharon Macdonald, both professors at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
The BMBF-funded Käte Hamburger international Centres give outstanding humanities scholars at German universities and colleges the opportunity to
• to promote an internationally visible and effective focus on the German humanities at universities and colleges and to strengthen links with foreign research centres and excellent institutions,
• to gain academic freedom for excellent academics to develop and pursue research questions of their own choosing by largely releasing them from university obligations,
• to form a learning community that systematically confronts other cultures of knowledge in order to scrutinise its own self-evident values,
• to involve international colleagues in their research work at German universities and colleges,
• to further develop methods in the humanities - including comparative, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research,
• introducing post-doctoral graduates to top international research and integrating them into networks.
