Memory during public events: the experience of X LMF
LMF is the largest conference about media and for media professionals in Eastern and Central Europe. This year, it brought together 500 people from 36 countries in Lviv. The forum, held for the second time during the full-scale war, was imbued with various acts of remembrance.
“We tried to design the program so that people visiting Ukraine for the first time could gain a deeper understanding of our context,” said Dara Franko, Communications Manager of the Lviv Media Forum.
During the opening of LMF, an audiovisual installation titled “The Weight of the Unspoken” was presented in memory of Yevhen Hulevych, a thinker, artist, translator, journalist, and warrior who died near Bakhmut.
The sound for the composition was crafted by Ostap Manuliak, utilizing processed audio recordings of Yevhen, purposefully captured in the Kherson region while serving in the ranks of the airborne assault forces, reflecting on his warrior’s experiences as an artist.
The image, which served as the basis for Andrii Linyk’s video, originates from a photograph taken by Yurko Vovkohon, a military and cultural figure.
“As the initiator of this creative project, considering the theme of this year’s Forum — the search for understanding — I found the idea of immersing particularly our foreign guests in that unique state of attentiveness towards life in every sound and expression deeply resonating. It was a state our friend Yevhen Hulevych knew how to foster within himself,” explained Yevheniia Nesterovych, curator of the cultural program of X LMF.
Yevheniia emphasized the importance of making this artistic tribute both personal and universal simultaneously.
As part of the LMF program, attendees visited the Memorial to the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred and Mars Field. Diana Borysenko, a specially invited guide, paused the group at the graves of two fallen soldiers she personally knew, Ilona Orlova and Serhii Tsybochkin.
“We do not know exactly how many soldiers, civilians, and especially journalists have died since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But behind each death lies a human story and profound grief. Organizers of public events, mainly international ones with participants from different countries, must support a culture of remembrance, which is an essential part of cultural policy,” added Dara Franko, Communications Manager of the Lviv Media Forum.
The Memorial Remembrance Platform aims to create a new culture of remembrance in Ukraine and calls for honoring the memory of those who have died in this war. The Memorial is open to collaboration with organizers of cultural, scientific, sports, and business events to fulfill this mission.
Contact: victims.memorial@gmail.com.
We would like to thank the partners who supported the conference
X LMF was organized by the team of the NGO Lviv Media Forum. We would like to express our gratitude for the support of the event to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED); the Media Development Fund of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine; the International Renaissance Foundation; UNESCO and the People of Japan; the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Program partners: USAID/ENGAGE; the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom and the Federal Foreign Office of Germany; the Robert Bosch Stiftung; the Institute of Mass Information; International Media Support; the Public Interest Journalism Lab; the Council of Europe.
Information partners: Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine; The Kyiv Independent; The Ukrainians Media; Euromaidan Press; Suspilne News; Suspilne Culture; DW Akademie; n-ost; Press Club Belarus; Inshe Interview; dwutygodnik; Freedom House Ukraine; UATV English; The Gaze; Radio NV; The Fix; Nakypilo Media Group; PR Army; Rubryka; ICTV.
Partners of the cultural program: Outriders; Jam Factory; Jam Cafe; KIVSH.