Grain: Mediator Between East and West

Kateryna Tykhonenko

Exposition

Grain: Mediator Between East and West (2025)

Kateryna Tykhonenko

open exposition

About this exposition

"Grain: Mediator Between East and West" is an image-led, cross-temporal exploration of bread wheat as both a commodity and a metaphor. Drawing on its historical and practical ubiquity as a staple grain in agrarian (Eastern) Europe, wheat emerges as the focal medium through which cultural and geopolitical narratives are revealed. What narratives does bread wheat carry, and what is entangled within localised perspectives? To what extent does the cultural history of grain intersect with modern grain infrastructures, whereby wheat transforms from an elemental medium into a mediator between East and West? Through thinking with and about grain, this work interrogates the gaps, overlaps and resonances between East and West, the post-war Soviet 1940s and the present day, repositioning wheat as a cultural mediator. This Master's project was conducted within the European Media Studies program at the University of Potsdam and University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, August 2025.

type	research exposition
keywords	grain, Media studies, entanglement, cultural history, agriculture
date	19/04/2025
published	01/10/2025
last modified	01/10/2025
status	published
affiliation	University of Potsdam, University of Applied Sciences Potsdam
copyright	Kateryna Tykhonenko
license	CC BY-NC-ND
language	English
url	https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/3583770/3583771
doi	https://doi.org/10.22501/rc.3583770
published in	Research Catalogue

References

Braun, Karen, “Ukraine’s Once-Booming Grain Industry Teetering on Being a War Casualty” <https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/ukraines-once-booming-grain-industry-teetering-being-war-casualty-braun-2025-04-23/> [accessed 23 July 2025]
Duggal, Hanna, “As Russia Exits Grain Deal, Which Countries Will Be Affected?” <https://aje.io/6mxahg> [accessed 4 August 2025]
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Fenbert, Abbey, “Russia Planned to Steal Grain and Starve Ukrainians Ahead of Invasion, Evidence Shows” <https://kyivindependent.com/russia-planned-to-steal-grain-and-starve-ukrainians-ahead-of-invasion-evidence-shows/> [accessed 23 July 2025]
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Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt, The Mushroom at the End of the World. On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins (Princeton University Press, 2015)
Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt, “Attunement: Form in Motion”, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 35 (John Wiley and Sons Australia, Ltd, 2024), pp. 87-95 <https://doi.org/10.1111/taja.12490>
Атаян, Гаяне Артемівна, and Ірина Зайцева, Тетяна Яблонська. Щоденники, спогади, роздуми (Kyiv: Rodovid Press, 2020)
Баздирєва, Ася, “Україна й Антропоцен: Земля” <https://korydor.in.ua/ua/stories/ukraine-antropocen.html> [accessed 23 July 2025]
Бугаєнко, Іван, Тетяна Яблонська. Живопис. Графіка (Київ: Мистецтво, 1991)
Кирилов, Юрій Є, “Бренд ‘Житниця Європи’: міф чи реальність”, Наукова дискусія, УДК 339.56:633.1:339.138(477) (Херсонський державний аграрний університет, 2014), pp. 101-7

Copyrights

name	Europeana.eu-463-item_RBJXOMKDODN7P5VJZHYWBVHDOS7QGU2F-250f4fdf688c5f5470e12ec784bea610
copyright	europeana
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	The Bread. Tetiana Yablonska, 1949. Oil on canvas.
copyright	Tetiana Yablonska
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	The Bread (Fragment). Tetiana Yablonska, 1949.
copyright	Tetiana Yablonska
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Wheat 30 BC AD 364
copyright	Deutsche Fotothek
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	Odesa oblast, Ukraine
copyright	Yuliia Pozniak
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	China plate fragment - black wheat design
copyright	Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa; Collection: History Gift of Beverley Randell Price, 2009
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	Farmers harvesting
copyright	Getty Images
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	Grain Storage, 1945
copyright	Milburn Lincoln Wilson Agricultural Photographs Collection
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	bsgi-vessel-movements-19072023
copyright	United Nations
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	Hands in wheat
copyright	Yulia Pozniak
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	Black Sea Initiative, 2022
copyright	Randam
license	CC BY-SA
usages	picture

name	Wheat exports in Africa_DW
copyright	Deutsche Welle
license	CC BY-SA
usages	picture

name	Wheat Yield
copyright	Yulia Pozniak
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	In the field
copyright	Yulia Pozniak
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	Fragment with women. The Bread, 1949
copyright	Tetiana Yablonska
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	Wheat fields in midsummer, Ukraine
copyright	Raimond Spekking
license	CC BY-SA
usages	picture

name	Grain isolated
copyright	Public Domain
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	Grain
copyright	Kateryna Tykhonenko
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Fertile Crescent map, 1916
copyright	Wikimedia Commons
license	CC BY-NC-SA
usages	picture

name	Typical agricultural landscape of Kherson Oblast
copyright	Wikimedia Commons
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	Screenshot
copyright	Economichna Pravda
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	Bread wheat in spring
copyright	Yulia Pozniak
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Global wheat area, map
copyright	IFPRI (Harvest Choice)
license	CC BY-SA
usages	picture

name	Große Landschaft mit singenden Frauen
copyright	Historisches Museum der Pfalz
license	CC BY-NC-SA
usages	picture

name	Ash bread
copyright	Davidbena
license	CC BY-SA
usages	picture

name	Terracota woman baking bread
copyright	MET
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	Who is buying wheat from Ukraine
copyright	Deutsche Welle
license	CC BY-NC
usages	picture

name	Message to Hontar Uliana Ivanivna
copyright	National Military Museum of Slobozhanschyna
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	Portrait of Yablonska at work
copyright	Tetiana Yablonska
license	CC BY-SA
usages	picture

name	The Bread. Pencil sketch
copyright	Tetiana Yablonska
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Female worker. The Bread (Fragment)
copyright	Teniana Yablonska
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Hensel and Gretel, Fragment
copyright	Heirich Merte
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	Breadbasket fragment
copyright	Tetiana Yablonska
license	CC BY-SA
usages	picture

name	China plate, Fragment
copyright	Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	Etude
copyright	Tetiana Yablonska
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Introduction
copyright	Kateryna Tykhonenko
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Zemlia (1930). Selected fragment.
copyright	Oleksandr Dovzhenko
license	Public domain
usages	video

name	Palyanytsia by Zhanna Kadyrova, 2022, Paris
copyright	Oak Taylor-Smith, Galleria Continua
license	CC BY-SA
usages	picture

name	The aftermath of a Russian UAV strike on a grain storage facility in a port on the Danube
copyright	Odesa OVA / Telegram
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	Scanning-electron-microscopy-analysis-of-modern-wheat-Triticum-aestivum-L-Sardari-A
copyright	Seyed Javad Mowla
license	CC BY-SA
usages	picture

name	Grain storage hut 17b anaikadu yercaud salem India
copyright	Yercaud-elango
license	CC BY-SA
usages	picture

name	das großdeutschland in der zukunft-fragment
copyright	Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin
license	CC BY-SA
usages	slideshow

name	das großdeutschland in der zukunft
copyright	Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin
license	CC BY-SA
usages	slideshow

name	Quote
copyright	Nana Ndeda
license	CC BY-SA
usages	picture

name	I. Women and Wheat
copyright	Kateryna Tykhonenko
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Women and Wheat
copyright	Kateryna Tykhonenko
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Following the Grain
copyright	Kateryna Tykhonenko
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	II. Following The Grain
copyright	Kateryna Tykhonenko
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	The Bread, Breadbasket and Breadctumbs
copyright	Kateryna Tykhonenko
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	III. The Bread, Breadbasket, and Breadcrumbs
copyright	Kateryna Tykhonenko
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Landscape and Plantationocene
copyright	Kateryna Tykhonenko
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	IV. Landscape and Plantationocene
copyright	Kateryna Tykhonenko
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Earth, Sea, Earth
copyright	Kateryna Tykhonenko
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	V. Earth, Sea, Earth
copyright	Kateryna Tykhonenko
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Sack of Grain, Fragment
copyright	Tetiana Yablonska
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	Anna Tsing, Mushroom at the End of the World
copyright	Anna Tsing
license	CC BY-SA
usages	picture

name	Breadbaskets
copyright	Kateryna Tykhonenko
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	VI. Breadbaskets
copyright	Kateryna Tykhonenko
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Anna Tsing, Mushroom, 83
copyright	Anna Tsing
license	CC BY-SA
usages	picture

name	Grain will find its way_Path of Grain
copyright	Lera Guievska
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Path of Grain_Odesa Ports
copyright	Lera Guievska
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Ukrainian hryvnia 1
copyright	National Bank of Ukraine Banknote Printing and Minting Works
license	CC BY-SA
usages	slideshow

name	Ukrainian hryvnia
copyright	National Bank of Ukraine Banknote Printing and Minting Works
license	CC BY-SA
usages	slideshow

name	Italian coin
copyright	Italian Republic
license	CC BY-SA
usages	slideshow

name	Italian lira
copyright	Italian Republic
license	CC BY-SA
usages	slideshow

name	Ancient Greek coin
copyright	Wikimedia Commons
license	CC BY-SA
usages	slideshow

name	Ancient greek coin 1
copyright	Wikimedia Commons
license	CC BY-SA
usages	slideshow

name	25 centimos
copyright	Real Casa de la Moneda de Madrid
license	CC BY-SA
usages	picture

name	French coin
copyright	Monnaie de Paris
license	CC BY-SA
usages	picture

name	Anti-tanks in Mykolaiv oblast
copyright	Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images
license	CC BY-SA
usages	picture

name	The Soviet Union stamp (Triticum aestivum)
copyright	Post of the Soviet Union (E. D. Aniskin, N. E. Kruglov)
license	CC BY-SA
usages	picture

name	Vestigia delle Terme di Tito. Tragen Sie das Auto. Quadro aus der Dekoration des Raumes 14; Carlone, Marco (1742-1796), Smuglewicz, Franciszek (1745-1807), Mirri, Ludovico (1738-1786); 1776 (1776-00-00-1776-00);DESA - Collection, Rom
copyright	DESA Collection, Rome
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	A man and a woman loading a cart, woodcut, 1547
copyright	Wellcome Collection
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	Wheat from the Ukranian people on March 15, 2023 (cropped)
copyright	U.S. Department of State, Chuck Kennedy
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	Grain Elevator Saint-Martin-l-Heureux
copyright	Bernd and Hilla Becher
license	CC BY-SA
usages	picture

name	Bread_Maker,_Adigrat
copyright	Rod Waddington
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	Yablonska about The Bread
copyright	Tetiana Yablonska
license	Public domain
usages	picture

name	Following the Grain
copyright	Kateryna Tykhonenko
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

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Grain: Mediator Between East and West (2025)

References

Copyrights