Art Communities at Risk: On Ukraine (original) (raw)
Postcolonial Past to Decolonial Future: Ukrainian Art in the Ages of Revolution and War, 2014–2024
Art in Ukraine Between Identity Construction and Anti-Colonial Resistance, 2024
Representative of a generation of contemporary Ukrainian artists, activists, and a cohort of academic scholars untainted by the trauma of imperialist ideology, freed of entrenched Russian narratives, and absent of the slightest nostalgia for a bygone Soviet era, this volume of essays offers fresh perspectives on the texture of a population and its culture breaking out of the clutches of colonization. Chronicling artistic events from the time of the dissolution of the USSR through the Orange ( ) and Euromaidan (2014) Revolutions to today's persistent criminal assault of Russia on Ukraine, the contributions give rise to a new, inclusive, way of thinking about the history of contemporary art by exposing a society transformed by the extraordinary circumstances of postcoloniality and war.
Introduction. Art in Ukraine Between Identity Construction and Anti-Colonial Resistance
2024
This edited volume traces the development of art practices in Ukraine from the 2004 Orange Revolution, through the 2013–2014 Revolution of Dignity, to the ongoing Russian war of aggression. Contributors explore how transformations of identity, the emergence of participatory democracy, relevant changes to cultural institutions, and the realization of the necessity of decolonial release have influenced the focus and themes of contemporary art practices in Ukraine. The chapters analyze such important topics as the postcolonial retrieval of the past, the deconstruction of post-Soviet visualities, representations of violence and atrocities in the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine, and the notion of art as a mechanism of civic resistance and identity-building. The book will be of interest to scholars of art history, Eastern European studies, cultural studies, decolonial studies, and postcolonial studies.
Faces of the Conflict: Ukrainian Art, 2013-2019
2020, At the Front Line. Ukrainian Art, 2013-2019/ La línea del frente. El arte ucraniano, 2013-2019, 2020
The catalog of the exhibition “At the Front Line. Ukrainian Art, 2013-2019” speaks about the turbulent political and social situation in Ukraine of the last seven years, such as the Revolution of Dignity, the annexation of Crimea, and the war with Russia. It focuses on the materials of the Ukrainian artists’ exhibition at the National Museum of Cultures in Mexico City from September 2019 to February 2020. This exhibition was part of a larger interdisciplinary project realized in Mexico City that also included a series of panel discussions with the participation of Ukrainian, Mexican, and British researchers and artists at the Museum of Memory and Tolerance and eight documentary screenings at the National Cineteca. This trilingual publication (English-Spanish-Ukrainian) documents the first large-scale project in Latin America which looked at the contemporary Ukrainian art scene and the situation in the country. The exhibition was further presented at Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre in Winnipeg, Canada. Participating artists: Piotr Armianovski, Yevgenia Belorusets, Svitlana Biedarieva, Zhanna Kadyrova, Yuri Koval, Roman Mikhaylov, Roman Minin, Olia Mykhailiuk, Lada Nakonechna, Yevgen Nikiforov, Kristina Norman, Mykola Ridnyi, Anton Popernyak, and works from the collection of the Izolyatsia Platform for Cultural Initiatives (Daniel Buren, Leandro Erlich, and Pascale Marthine Tayou), César Martínez Silva, and Paola Paz Yee. Texts by Yevgenia Belorusets, Svitlana Biedarieva, Uilleam Blacker, Hanna Deikun, Oleksandra Gaidai, Olesya Khromeychuk, Ricardo Macias Cardoso, César Martínez Silva, Jean Meyer, Olia Mykhailiuk, Maryna Rabinovych, Vsevolod Samokhvalov, Paola Paz Yee, and Mykola Ridnyi.
Eyewitness the Russian War in Ukraine: The Matter of Loss and Arts
Sociologica, 2022
Describing the first months of the full-scale Russian war in Ukraine, this article considers the materiality of art during the war: the destruction and appropriation of cultural heritage and infrastructure, the risk of being violent, and losing a life. Furthermore, this essay problematizes the value and symbolism of objects and art and speaks of artworks as a strategy of intellectual and historical resistance.
In Ukraine, art is a bloodless weapon for democracy. The evidence of the Venice Biennale 2022
VAEIE Project (Values and Attitudes Education For Inclusive Europe), 2022
In times of brutal wars like that one against Ukraine it seems almost impossible to think about art. On the contrary, the war against Ukraine highlighted the importance, necessity and urgency of art as an effective, but bloodless, weapon for democracy and artists as political activists for democracy. The tributes to Ukrainian resistance ranged from art as propaganda to art as a reflection on freedom of expression, an integral component of democracy in any society and a protest against war
Contemporary Ukrainian and Baltic Art: Political and Social Perspectives 1991-2021, Ed. Svitlana Biedarieva, 2021
This volume focuses on political and social expressions in contemporary art of Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. It explores the transformations that art in Ukraine and the Baltic states has undergone since their independence in 1991, discussing how the conflicts and challenges of the last three decades have impacted the reconsideration of identity and fostered resistance of culture against economic and political crises. It analyzes connections between the past and the present as seen by the artists in these countries and looks at their visions of the future. Contemporary Ukrainian art portrays various perspectives, addressing issues from controversial historical topics to the present military conflict in the East of the country. Baltic art speaks out against the erasure of past historical traumas and analyzes the pertinence of its cultural scene to the European community. The contributions in this collection open a discussion of whether there is a single paradigm that describes the contemporary processes of art production in Ukraine and the Baltic countries. With contributions by Ieva Astahovska, Svitlana Biedarieva, Kateryna Botanova, Olena Martynyuk, Vytautas Michelkevičius, Lina Michelkevičė, Margaret Tali, and Jessica Zychowicz.
Art in Ukraine Between Identity Construction and Anti-Colonial Resistance, Ed. Svitlana Biedarieva, 2024
This edited volume traces the development of art practices in Ukraine from the 2004 Orange Revolution, through the 2013–2014 Revolution of Dignity, to the ongoing Russian war of aggression. Contributors explore how transformations of identity, the emergence of participatory democracy, relevant changes to cultural institutions, and the realization of the necessity of decolonial release have influenced the focus and themes of contemporary art practices in Ukraine. The chapters analyze such important topics as the postcolonial retrieval of the past, the deconstruction of post-Soviet visualities, representations of violence and atrocities in the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine, and the notion of art as a mechanism of civic resistance and identity-building. The book will be of interest to scholars of art history, Eastern European studies, cultural studies, decolonial studies, and postcolonial studies.
2020, At the Front Line. Ukrainian Art, 2013-2019/ La línea del frente. El arte ucraniano, 2013-2019, 2020
The catalog of the exhibition “At the Front Line. Ukrainian Art, 2013-2019” speaks about the turbulent political and social situation in Ukraine of the last seven years, such as the Revolution of Dignity, the annexation of Crimea, and the war with Russia. It focuses on the materials of the Ukrainian artists’ exhibition at the National Museum of Cultures in Mexico City from September 2019 to February 2020. This exhibition was part of a larger interdisciplinary project realized in Mexico City that also included a series of panel discussions with the participation of Ukrainian, Mexican, and British researchers and artists at the Museum of Memory and Tolerance and eight documentary screenings at the National Cineteca. This trilingual publication (English-Spanish-Ukrainian) documents the first large-scale project in Latin America which looked at the contemporary Ukrainian art scene and the situation in the country. The exhibition was further presented at Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre in Winnipeg, Canada. Participating artists: Piotr Armianovski, Yevgenia Belorusets, Svitlana Biedarieva, Zhanna Kadyrova, Yuri Koval, Roman Mikhaylov, Roman Minin, Olia Mykhailiuk, Lada Nakonechna, Yevgen Nikiforov, Kristina Norman, Mykola Ridnyi, Anton Popernyak, and works from the collection of the Izolyatsia Platform for Cultural Initiatives (Daniel Buren, Leandro Erlich, and Pascale Marthine Tayou), César Martínez Silva, and Paola Paz Yee. Texts by Yevgenia Belorusets, Svitlana Biedarieva, Uilleam Blacker, Hanna Deikun, Oleksandra Gaidai, Olesya Khromeychuk, Ricardo Macias Cardoso, César Martínez Silva, Jean Meyer, Olia Mykhailiuk, Maryna Rabinovych, Vsevolod Samokhvalov, Paola Paz Yee, and Mykola Ridnyi.
Art Music and War: Ukrainian Case 2022
Musicologica Brunensia, 2023
After the beginning of full-scale war Russia against Ukraine from 24 of February 2022, Ukrainian composers are reflecting the theme of a war in diverse ways. This article examines general underpinning concepts, guiding the composers of the present-day Ukraine, as well and their actual musical realizations, in order to 1) provide a basis for the understanding of the wartime functioning of the Ukrainian music culture; and 2) capture a specific brand of a creative response to a dramatic and oftentimes, tragic political situation. Specifically, attention in the article focuses on works Eyes to Eyes by Evgen Petrychenko and Lullaby for Mariupol by Illia Razumeiko, Roman Grygoriv and Opera Aperta ensemble, and investigate their structural, semantic and reception-related aspects.