In Kyiv masked men vandalized exhibition of anarchist-artist

Unidentified masked men vandalized the exhibition of Ukrainian artist entitled “Lost Opportunities”, which was held in the Visual Culture Research Center art gallery in Kyiv.

On February 7, at 6pm, more than 10 people broke into the premises of the Center, beaten the guard, destroyed the works and ran away, writes UP.Kultura (Culture).

“We opened the exhibition as planned, at 2pm. Immediately we noticed a “scout” who came for reconnaissance, and understood that an attack is possible. We called security guard and closed the exhibition from inside. We opened only for visitors, only one at a time was allowed to enter”, – said the employee of the Center, who asked to remain anonymous.

At around 6pm, guard went to open doors for the next visitor. Suddenly about 15 people burst into the exhibition with covered faces, there were girls among them, and began destroying the work.

Three employees of the Center closed down in the office and called the National Police. Officers came only after 40 minutes long after the attackers disappeared and refused to pursue them.

Demolition of the exhibition lasted about 5 minutes. During this time masked men inflicted injuries to the guard, who tried to resist. Destroyed all the works, wrote graffiti on the walls with texts “Glory to Ukraine!”, “Loudspeaker of Moscow”, “Separ” and others, broke through the wall and damaged the radiator.

The organizers of exhibition are suspecting right-wing radicals in the attack on CRC. They said that the first attack of unidentified men happened on February 4, when the artist was supposed to hold the author’s tour of exhibition. This was preceded by threats from right-wing radicals on Facebook social network.

Then the agency staff canceled the tour and closed the exhibition. However, a few unknowns still tried to break through the closed door. They damaged a banner, tore down a poster and beaten a random passerby. He was a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Exhibition “Lost Opportunities” opened in the Visual Culture Research Center on February 2. In the presented work anarchist-artist David Chichkan, an active participant in the Euromaidan protests, tried to rethink Euromaidan as a revolution that has not reached its goal, has not reached its emancipative potential, which eventually led to a war.