Forum | There Is Nothing Solid About Solidarity

There Is Nothing Solid About Solidarity is a satellite program of Kyiv Biennial 2025, developed by the editorial team of MOST magazine (Ewa Borysiewicz, Vera Zalutskaya en Katie Zazenski) together with artist Yulia Krivich.

Through both historic and contemporary frameworks, the programme seeks to further contextualise the idea of Middle East Europe. The notion, which is central to this edition of the Kyiv Biennial, is analyzed through the post-socialist experience – meaning, on the one hand, failed attempts at constructing modern utopias and painful political, ideological and economic transformations; and on the other, the strong cultural exchanges and state-animated “friendships” between, for example, former Socialist Block and Middle East nations in the 20th century.

Today’s reactionary tendencies towards nationalist and fascist movements, together with human rights crises, genocides and wars, expose the frailty of our democratic systems rooted in profit-based alliances. In consideration of this, the programme gathers artists, curators, researchers and collectives who hail from regions widely known as Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, offering a space for interrogation of the institutions and frameworks that have led us to this current geopolitical environment and the initiatives that have flourished as a result.

There Is Nothing Solid About Solidarity presents a spectrum of organisational forms – from individual grassroots projects and community centres to research endeavours that examine historical expressions of solidarity, friendship and allyship.

The program includes:

• Two days of talks and practice-based presentations

• An exhibition in Muhka’s INBOX-space

• A curated film screening in collaboration with De Cinema (friday, saturday & sunday) 

• A musical evening with local artists at De Studio

• A series of texts published in MOST magazine

Through these activities, the program aims to be a catalyst for lasting relationships and fresh allicances that when woven together, reveal a rich ecosystem of resistance, care, and vision, and embodies the notion of solidarity as a commitment to risk with and to stand beside.

*Free entrance – a regular museum visit is not included

Programme

Friday 24.10

De Cinema & De Studio, Maarschalk Gérardstraat 4, 2000 Antwerp

18:00 – 18:15 curators’ introduction to the forum and to the video programme. The film programme, You Dream Better in the Dark, will be screened in a loop during designated times across Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

18:15 – 20:15 What Does a Landscape Remember? Katarina Jazbec, Beatrice Moumdjian, Tytus Szabelski-Różniak, Driant Zeneli

20:30 – 23:00 DJ set/music programme with Nikolay Karabinovych and Floèmee

Saturday 25.10

M HKA, Leuvenstraat 32, 2000 Antwerp

10:00 – 10:15 introduction/welcome by the curators

10:15–11:30 Belonging and Surviving
Alaa Abu Asad, Oleksandra Pogrebnyak, Selma Selman

11:30 -12:30 Erasure and Repair
Dana Kosmina, Nour Shantout

12:30 – 13:30 lunch/coffee break (on-site)

13:30 – 14:45 Resistance and Resilience
Malaka Shwaikh, Antonina Stebur

15:00 – 15:30 Circassian Beauty
performance by Elif Satanaya Özbay

15:45 – 17:30 The School of Algorithmic Solidarity
session with eeefff

Sunday 26.10

M HKA, Leuvenstraat 32, 2000 Antwerp

11:00 – 12:00 As I’m going to bed, I think of the Lange Beeldekensstraat
city walk with Nikolay Karabinovych (starting from and ending back at M HKA)

12:30 – 13:45 Extractive Objectivity
Asia Bazdyrieva, Samah Hijawi, Basyma Saad

13:45 – 14:45 lunch/coffee break (on-site)

14:45 – 16:00 Misuse as Method
fantastic little splash, Firas Shehadeh, Kat Zavada

16:00 – 17:15 On Institutional Becoming
DAVRA represented by Dilda Ramazan, KRAK represented by Irfan Hošić

11:00 – 17:15 (running concurrently) The practice of Social Interaction
workshop with Yasia Khomenko

There Is Nothing Solid About Solidarity is a satellite program of Kyiv Biennial 2025, developed by the editorial team of MOST magazine (Ewa Borysiewicz, Vera Zalutskaya, Katie Zazenski) together with Yulia Krivich. The program explores the idea of Middle East Europe — a central concept in this edition of the biennial — and places it in both historical and contemporary contexts.

Participants

Noor Abed, Alaa Abu Asad, Nika Autor, Asia Bazdyrieva, eeefff (Nicolay Spesivtsev, Dzina Zhuk), fantastic little splash (Oleksandr Hants, Lera Malchenko), fantastic little splash, Floèmee, Samah Hijawi, Irfan Hošić, Saodat Ismailova, Katarina Jazbec, Nikolay Karabinovych, Dana Kavelina, Yasia Khomenko, Bogdana Kosmina, Daryna Mamaisur, Svitlana Matviyenko, Petrică Mogoș, Beatrice Moumdjian, Laura Naum, Elif Satanaya Özbay, Alpesh Kantilal Patel, Oleksandra Pogrebnyak, Maxim Poleacov, Dilda Ramazan, Basyma Saad, Selma Selman, Nour Shantout, Firas Shehadeh, Malaka Shwaikh, Antonina Stebur, Tytus Szabelski-Różniak, Asia Tsisar, Kat Zavada, Driant Zeneli

Curators and partners

The program is curated by MOST magazine (Ewa Borysievicz, Vera Zalutskaya, Katie Zazenski) and Yulia Krivich. MOST is an online English-language platform focused on art, culture, and politics in Central and Eastern Europe.

There Is Nothing Solid About Solidarity is organized by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute (Warsaw) in collaboration with Muhka, De Cinema, and De Studio. The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland, in partnership with the Polish Institute in Brussels, and takes place alongside the exhibition Kyiv Biennial 2025 – Homelands and Hinterlands at Muhka.

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