This summer, Artists Against the Kremlin returns to De Balie for its third edition. Organised by Prometheus Art, The Moscow Times and De Balie, the exhibition brings together contemporary Russian-speaking artists from across the world whose work confronts Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, political repression and censorship.

Over the past two years, Artists Against the Kremlin has presented more than 300 artworks, welcomed over 5,000 visitors, and attracted significant international media attention. This year's exhibition features more than 70 artworks by, among others, Pussy Riot, Yuliy Rybakov, Linor Goralik, Masha Trebukova, Artem Loskutov, Pavel Krisevich, Sasha Skochilenko, Aya Demina, Milada Kopeliovich, Vladlena Sandu, Ivan Dubyaga, Anita Turadzhanova, Nika Nikulshina and many others.

Beyond presenting contemporary art, the project safeguards cultural memory in a context where memory itself has become a political battleground. Under Russia's authoritarian regime, historical narratives are rewritten, archives suppressed and acts of remembrance criminalised. The exhibition documents the human consequences of war and authoritarianism while creating space for dialogue across borders, generations and political realities.

Artists Against the Kremlin seeks to preserve truth when truth is under attack, protect memory when memory is being erased, and remind us that behind every headline are individual lives, choices and acts of courage.

An important part of this year's exposition will be the exhibition The Other Russia. MEMORIAL: 35 Years of Struggle for Historical Truth and Democracy, presented in the Netherlands for the first time. Developed by Memorial, one of Russia's oldest human rights organisations, the exhibition showcases decades of archival research documenting political repression, state violence and civic resistance.

Why Memory Remains:

This year's exhibition focuses on the theme of memory and the importance of preserving it.

The systematic erasure of memory has become a defining feature of contemporary Russia. Histories are rewritten, archives are suppressed and individual voices disappear from the public record.

The Gulag History Museum in Moscow, one of the country's foremost institutions documenting Soviet political repression, was forced to close. Memorial, one of Russia's oldest organisations dedicated to documenting state violence and preserving historical memory, was designated an extremist organisation. Neither institution was punished for promoting violence, but for remembering it.

Yet erasing memory is not a new tactic. It is as old as the Soviet Union itself: the silenced massacre in Novocherkassk, the countless victims of Stalinist terror and forced displacement, rewritten histories, renamed cities, retouched photographs and names deliberately erased from public memory. What has changed is the speed, scale and brazenness with which this erasure is taking place today.

Artists Against the Kremlin III: Memory Remains is an artistic response to this reality. Through the work of artists living in exile, under persecution or continuing to create despite repression, the exhibition preserves the memory of resistance and insists that it remains part of our shared history.

Support Artists Against the Kremlin

This year's edition has been the most ambitious—and the most challenging—to realise. If you value independent art and believe that preserving memory is essential in resisting authoritarianism, please consider supporting our crowdfunding campaign.

Your contribution helps us present the exhibition, publish new work, support participating artists and preserve the histories that the Kremlin seeks to erase.

Support the project HERE

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