Love and Know Your Native Land

The self-organized artistic initiative DE NE DE unites artists, musicians, architects and historians around the idea of preserving an obscure and non-obvious cultural heritage. DE NE DE explores cultural change caused by ideological shifts, particularly the processes of decolonization and decommunization. The name DE NE DE is a play on words, variably recombining decommunization, deconstruction, decolonization, de-ideologization – all terms that are constantly present in the discourse of the initiative’s practice. Literally, it can be translated as “somewhere,” which also directly reflects the group’s main activity – research and search expeditions. Since 2015, DE NE DE has traveled all over Ukraine looking for unique disappearing cultural heritage, studying the exhibitions of regional museums, abandoned Soviet buildings, monuments, and mosaics. These expeditions are titled “Люби та знай свій рідний край / Love and Know Your Native Land,” a typical title of school essays written in Ukrainian schools, usually describing stereotypical features of homeland. This is also the title used to publish the group’s non-obvious findings, which are also a significant part of Ukrainian identity. Participants of DE NE DE will present a selection of photo and video documentation of their expeditions and give visitors the opportunity to make their own souvenir print with original ornaments of the disappearing Ukrainian Soviet cultural heritage. In English