Zelens'kyj speaks at the Venice Biennale. Art helps to understand feelings

The president ofUkraine, Volodymyr Zelens’kyj, made a surprise speech on April 21 at the opening of This is Ukraine. Defending Freedom, a collateral exhibition of the Venice Biennale that opens its doors from April 23 to August 7 at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia in Venice. The exhibition, organized in collaboration with the Office of the President of Ukraine and the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, is aimed at supporting the work of contemporary Ukrainian artists also with the help of international artists. With two chapters, the exhibition tells the story of the country’s cultural resilience: on display are works by Yevgenia Belorusets, Nikita Kadan, Lesia Khomenko, Maria Priymachenko, Tetyana Yablonska, Stefan Medytsky, and Boris Mikhailov among Ukrainians, while international artists include Marina Abramović, Olafur Eliasson, JR, Damien Hirst, and Takashi Murakami.

In a packed hall for the opening, Zelens’kyj’s message, dedicated to the power of art, was projected on the mega-screen and listened to in complete silence by the attendees. We reproduce below the full translation.

“Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps there has not been a single year on planet earth in which a nation has not fought for its freedom. But there have been many years when most people did not notice these struggles for freedom. This is what tyranny hopes for. Our people managed to focus attention on Ukraine’s freedom struggle after Russia attacked us on February 24. But that is only half the job, because we need people to support us for real: with weapons, economically, with political decisions, with a constant flow of information. And you must fight for that support even if the freedom of a dozen other nations in Europe and Asia depended equally on your defense of freedom. This is what nurtures the hope of tyrants: some nations, living quietly, are not ready to immediately support other free nations threatened by tyranny, to support their efforts and struggle. This raises questions. Very important questions.”

“If the entire democratic world was built on the idea of freedom, then why does it often feel lonely when defending freedom? If freedom a universal value, then why do other nations, struggling for freedom, never gain support? What is it that separates us from others at crucial moments? Politicians will not answer that. There are no experts who can explain it. The answers will not be found in the media either, because it is something beyond words. One cannot put into words the feelings of a little girl who is writing a letter to her mother who died in Mariupol from Russian shelling the week before. The feelings of Ukrainian soldiers, who arrived in Bucha after the Russian occupiers were driven away, and saw hundreds of bodies of people killed and thrown on the ground, cannot be shown on TV news. The feelings of the doctors who in the streets of Kharkiv were rescuing injured people from Russian shelling and found themselves under even heavier shelling-there is no platform in the world that can express them. The feeling of those who lost their homes, which is now being felt by millions of Ukrainian men and women, millions of internally displaced persons, cannot be represented by an economic report.”

“There is no tyranny that does not try to limit art, because they can see the power of art. Art can say things that cannot be shared in other ways. It is art that conveys feelings. If you are free, how can you understand other people who are fighting for their freedom? If you live in a country at peace, how can you understand those who can only dream of peace, and help them? How can you thank those who are also fighting on their land for your freedom? Each of these questions is about art. I want to thank everyone who has been involved in this project for the Venice Biennale. I am sure that the exhibition will allow people to experience what it means for Ukraine to defend freedom, to experience the bond that unites all free peoples on earth and Ukraine, to experience that each of you can support the struggle for freedom, the one and only freedom for all.”

“Support our struggle with your art. But also support us with your words and influence. Thank you for your concern for our artists. Glory to Ukraine.”

Zelens'kyj speaks at the Venice Biennale. Art helps to understand feelings

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