Displaced Culture(s). Book
10 May 2026 — 16 May 2026
Displaced Culture(s): Migration, Displacement, and the Shifting Cultural Landscape(s) of the Eastern Neighbourhood Countries is a publication examines the cultural consequences of migration, displacement, and political transformation across six Eastern Partnership countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus in exile, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. Developed within the framework of the Independent Cultural Organisations Network ICON× in collaboration with the Danish Cultural Institute (DCI), it brings together perspectives from researchers and cultural practitioners who have been directly engaged with these processes since 2020.
Through a series of country-specific case studies, the authors analyse cultural migration as a structural condition shaping cultural production, memory politics, and institutional frameworks. At its core is the question of how cultural actors are disproportionately affected by political repression, armed conflict, and shrinking civic space — and how, at the same time, they become drivers of dialogue, resilience, and alternative narratives.
The chapter on Ukraine focuses on IZOLYATSIA. Researcher Marina Pesenti traces three displacements of the Foundation — beginning with its violent expulsion from Donetsk in 2014 — and shows how each one did not break, but reimagined, the organisation's identity and strategy. Through projects including Reconstruction of Memory, Donbas Studies, Gurtobus, and Lia and Andriy Dostliev's installation Comfort Work at the 2024 Venice Biennale, Pesenti argues that displacement can be more than trauma: it can become a point of reckoning — with what we know, how we speak, and who holds the right to their own narrative.
Marina Pesenti is a UK-based cultural practitioner and analyst focusing on cultural diplomacy, cultural policy, and soft power. She 127 is the author of an analytical paper on cultural revival and social transformation in Ukraine, published by Chatham House in 2020. She has collaborated on multiple projects aimed at developing cultural policy for the Ukrainian government and international partners, with a focus on strengthening cultural institutions and cultural activism. She is a former Director of the Ukrainian Institute London and a former member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Institute, a state institution affiliated with Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She also has extensive media experience with the BBC World Service.
Authors: Henriette Borg Reinholdt, Tigran Amiryan, Giorgi Shaishmelashvili, Sophia Kilasonia, Mina Narimanli, Lizaveta Stecko, Marina Pesenti, Teodor Ajder
Editor: C. Poole
Publisher: ICON×, 2026
Language: English
This publication has been developed within the framework of the Independent Cultural Organisations Network | ICON× in collaboration with the Danish Cultural Institute | DCI.