Thomas Seifert

This project explores how urban creators in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and Serbia sustain cultural spaces amid brain drain, authoritarianism, and war. Through interviews and multimedia storytelling, Thomas Seifert examines how underground venues—techno clubs, art collectives, community centers—function as (temporary) autonomous zones fostering democratic resilience in Kyiv, Tbilisi, Belgrade, and Chisinau. While it is focused on four capital cities that share common characteristics—high youth emigration and deep political crises, the project addresses broader European questions about cultural identity and the development of civil society in times of crisis. Central to Seifert’s research is understanding what motivates artists and musicians to stay despite opportunities abroad, and how these cultural spaces contribute to democratization and social cohesion. In considering these scenes across different post-Soviet and post-Yugoslav contexts, Seifert’s aim is to describe how far (if at all) these diverse cultural movements are interlinked, and whether they may offer a model for how counterculture can serve as a bulwark of democratic values in a Europe facing growing threats to freedom and civil society.