The Research Center "Ukraine in a Changing Europe" is co-hosting a discussion titled "Rivers as Political Bodies"

How do people exercise power over rivers, and how do these waterways influence our lives? Exploring the creative power and political influence of rivers is at the heart of a workshop and film screening organized by the research center Ukraine in a Changing Europe in collaboration with the French Institute to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s destruction of the Kakhovka Dam.

Swedish journalist Sofia Nyblom, Ukrainian artist Daria Lukyanenko, Czech poet and philologist Sylva Fischerová, and Ukrainian political scientist Valeria Korablyova invite the audience to perceive major European waterways, such as the Dnieper and the Vltava, through the lens of art as subjects and agents of change with moral rights. As active agents, rivers embody a layered and politicized memory as well as national myth: while their fragile ecosystems are often subjected to colonial exploitation and violence, rivers also possess an underappreciated capacity to influence radical change.

The workshop and screening will take place next Monday, April 20, at 6:00 PM at the French Institute, located at Štěpánská 35, Prague 1.