Discussion: Eastern Promises

In recent years, musicians from a range of countries once in the so-called Communist Bloc – including Central-Eastern Europe – have staked their identity on being ‘Eastern European’. Thirty years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, this panel explores the parameters of the ‘Eastern European’ identity today. How do ideas of East and West fit alongside the notion of a North-South divide? How do Ukrainians perceive countries lying west of the EU border, and how does the Russian invasion of Ukraine further complicate the idea of a collective Eastern European identity? Might it be useful to think outside geopolitical bubbles, and if so, what might the new models of identity be? Moderated by Mariana Berezovska from Borshch Magazine, with dogheadsurigeri from Oramics, Łukasz Warna-Wiesławski from Tańce and Granko, writer and music promoter Maya Baklanova and a representative of eastbloc antifascist sound alliance.