Listen to our podcast series

War doesn’t mute culture — it sharpens it. And art isn’t a luxury to postpone until better times. They are both forces of resistance and ways to safeguard identity.

Back Fire: Stories of Cultural Counterforce is our new podcast series, bringing you voices from Ukrainian and Dutch artists who respond to crisis not with silence, but with imagination. Through weaving traditions, visual arts, music, and acts of cultural exchange, they reveal how creativity can protect and reshape identity, nurture resilience and creative defiance, and spark unexpected but profound connections across borders.

Back Fire offers vivid reminders that even the smallest creative gestures can carry weight — and that culture remains a lifeline, even in the darkest times.

In this episode, we give the stage to Asia Tsisar, a Ukrainian curator, artist and researcher. She talks about power and perspective in international cultural stories — and about who gets to decide whose voice matters. She shares the pressure she feels to speak for and explain Ukraine simply because she is Ukrainian. We also talk about how Russia’s full-scale invasion has pushed the young generation into premature roles as war reporters, cultural workers, and curators of collective trauma.

She makes the case for taking systems apart that put institutions, identities, and borders first but fail to protect — and for building communities that start with people, shared needs, and common ground.

Episode two of Back Fire welcomes Marjo van Schaik, a Dutch artist, designer, and cultural strategist working between Kyiv and Amsterdam. She dives into the vibrant energy of Ukraine’s art scene, what she has learned from traditional weaving as a way to tell new stories, and the importance of cultural exchange for keeping artists visible and supported. Together, we explore women’s leadership, the value of creating space for connection, mutual inspiration, and how even small steps can spark real change.

During Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, Marjo will exhibit together with fellow Ukrainian designers. Their exhibition FIGHT, FLIGHT or FREEZE? will be on view from 18–26 October. Marjo is also part of Ro3kvit, a coalition of over 100 professionals from Ukraine and beyond who unite to create knowledge and urban design methodologies for rebuilding Ukraine’s urban and rural areas and infrastructure.

Episode 1: Future is a Difficult Word
In our first episode, we meet Anastasiia Manuliak — curator, cultural manager, and Head of Visual Arts at the Ukrainian Institute in Kyiv. She is also representative of the Zapravka residency programme. Although Ukraine's art scene is surprisingly vibrant, the full-scale invasion has completely reshaped it, especially for young artists, she says. Anastasiia also reflects on memory as a form of resilience, the role of art in preserving it, and how Europe shapes the question of where Ukraine belongs.

Back Fire is part of our new platform, Threads of Identity: The Unyielding Spirit of Ukraine’s Cultural Sector, to support the Ukrainian cultural sector. This podcast series is co-produced by DutchCulture and Are We Europe.