Kolokvium: War Experiences in Ukrainian Art

Where?

• AFAD, Hviezdoslavovo námestie 18, room no. 135
• Free entry for the public.

When?

• 25.10. 2023, 11:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
• The colloquium will be held in English.

Moderator of the event: Beata Jablonská

Colloquium Program:

(detailed information and abstracts by clicking on the presenter's name)

11:00 - Welcome and introduction.

• Welcome speech of the First Secretary of the Embassy of Ukraine in the Slovak Republic Yaroslava Kamarchuk.

11:15 - Daryna Skrynnyk-Myska:

• Decolonization in the optics of Ukrainian art after the full-scale invasion of Russia.

12:15 - Bohdana Hrynda:

• Contemporary American art in flux. Relations to the ideas of globalisation, identities, site and memory.

13:15 - Anna Yefimova:

• Art projects of LNAA Gallery (Lviv National Academy of Arts Gallery) after the full-scale invasion of 2022. The Context of War.

14:30 – 16:00 - Lunch

16:00 - Yuliya Babunych:

• National and international in Ukrainian abstractionism and constructivism.

17:00 - Andrii Sydorenko:

• Ukrainian digital art during the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war.

18:00 - Kseniia Rozhak-Lytvynenko:

• Modern Ukrainian kitsch: causes and potential consequences.

19:00 - End of colloquium

Detailed Information:

Daryna Skrynnyk-Myska

• Head of the Department of Contemporary Art Practices at Lviv National Academy of Arts, an independent curator, art critic, lecturer, PhD in the History of Philosophy.

Decolonization in the optics of Ukrainian socio-critical art after the full-scale invasion of Russia

The main focus of the lecture is the change of historical moments before the beginning of the full-scale invasion and after it through selective, comparative analysis of several significant art projects of Ukrainian artists within time frame from 2014 (the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war) till 2022 (first year of full- scale invasion). The year 2022 is considered in the context of P. Piotrovsky's horizontal approach to art history: the changes that are taking place now are comparable to those that took place in the global world in the late 1960s or in 1989.

Decolonization in this context is understood both as a political process of liberation from empire and as the acquisition of agency and one's own voice. So both these discourses – postcolonial and decolonial, – are shown in the lecture through artistic practices. The selected artistic projects serve as a lens that enables the analysis of transition by highlighting relevant themes and issues, comprehension its historical dynamics.

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Bohdana Hrynda

• PhD, Current position is senior lecturer at the Contemporary Arts Department (Lviv National Academy of Arts).

Contemporary American art in flux. Relations to the ideas of globalisation, identities, site and memory.

This conversation is dedicated to the time that defined the boundaries of the state of modernity in modern art — from the 80s to the present. And it will mostly concern the art of the United States of America, which has emerged as a kind of superpower since the 60s. First of all, of course, in the world of geopolitics, but they also managed to bring their cultural and artistic discourse to a leadership position. Such leadership is most clearly manifested in the context of the ideas of globalism and multiculturalism. Ukraine, as a subject of study and as a partner for constructive and serious dialogue, remained behind the scenes of the interests of American cultural policy for a long time. The situation changed crucially in 2022, when a full-scale invasion began. The efforts of Ukrainian cultural diplomacy and the solidarity of the free world with Ukraine help to widely and visibly present our culture and art, in images and forms filled with such meanings and contents that were previously accessible, and let's be honest, also interesting only to a narrow circle of professional audiences. So, at the end of this conversation, I will try to outline how Ukrainian contemporary art speaks to Americans in America, and how it has become a self-sufficient part of a broad multicultural, globalized narrative of American culture.

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Anna Yefimova

• PhD, Associate Professor at the Art Management Department of Lviv National Academy of Arts (LNAA). Leading specialist in exhibition activities and curator of LNAA gallery. Researcher. Expert at the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.

Art projects of the Lviv National Academy of Arts Gallery after the full-scale invasion of 2022: the context of war.

During the lecture, we will talk about the gallery of the Lviv National Academy of Arts (LNAA) as an exhibition space for the young generation of artists, which is actively operating in one of the largest art institutions of higher education in Ukraine. The gallery was founded in 2015 for the art  experiments of students and graduates of the Academy. More than a hundred diverse projects were implemented in the  LNAA Gallery during the last eight years: joint exhibitions that represented all art specialties of LNAA, solo projects of the students and graduates; collective projects of high art schools, etc. In addition to exhibitions, other art events took place here: performances, music concerts, poetry readings, theater performances, cinema shows, lectures, presentations, art meetings and even fashion shows. Exhibitions are selected every year in the format of competition like “open call”.

However, the pandemic that started in 2020 and later the full-scale war in Ukraine had a significant impact on the gallery's activities and art by the young generation. It is especially interesting to explore the specifics of exhibition projects implemented after the full-scale invasion (February 2022) and how young artists began to work with the subject of the traumatic experience of war. We will talk in detail about ten different exhibitions (personal and collective), which reflect on current events in Ukraine and how the LNAA gallery works today.

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Yuliya Babunych

• Head of the postgraduate and doctoral studies department and Senior lecturer of the Department of Art History and Theory, Lviv National Academy of Arts.

National and international in Ukrainian abstractionism and constructivism

The lecture analyzes national and international traits in Ukrainian abstractionism and constructivism. Ukrainian modernism in the 1910s came to the forefront of new searches of European art related to the rejection of the figurative function. The artist and theorist K. Malevych is one of the main representatives of abstract art, not only Ukrainian, but also the world. Combining elements of Cubism and Futurism, he creates a new direction of avant-garde painting, calling it Suprematism. Childhood and adolescence, conducted in Ukraine, left a significant mark in the creative activity of K. Malevych. Suprematism arose during a sharp confrontation between the "old" and the "new" art, between abstraction and naturalism. No wonder the author declares the basis of a new direction of rejection of the plot and resorted to inappropriate, the image of geometric figures, freely scattered on a picturesque plane. The first suprematist works were created by the artist in 1915. An indisputable declaration of immaterial painting becomes his "Black square on a white background" of 1915, exhibited for the first time in St. Petersburg at the futuristic exhibition "0,10". An outstanding Suprematist sought to liberate artistic creativity from any imitation of nature and create an abstract art that would aect the viewer only through color and form.

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Andrii Sydorenko

• Artist, curator, researcher, PhD in History of Art, lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Ukrainian digital art during the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war

This study explores the impact of the escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian war and contemporary technological advancements on the Ukrainian artistic community, focusing on the evolving themes and creative approaches. Initially, the researcher delves into the artistic contributions of Kateryna Lisova, Nikita Titov, Oksana Chepelyk, Mykhailo Rai, Albina Yaloza, Zibra AI, Yulia Shibirkina, Maria Sharlai, ZViT, and Beata Kurkul. Subsequently, the study highlights key events in digital art in support of Ukraine, including "Art on the Battlefront", "Artists Support Ukraine", "UBIENNALE", "Meta History: Museum of War", "Ukrainian Wartime Poster", and "Peace Letters to Ukraine", among others. 

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Kseniia Rozhak-Lytvynenko

Associated Professor at the Department of Computer technologies of design and Graphics in the National Aviation University (Kyiv), External teacher for Erasmus+ students in AFAD, an independent lecturer and researcher, PhD in the Art History.

Modern Ukrainian kitsch: causes and potential consequences.

The main content of the lecture is to clarify the essence of the phenomenon of modern Ukrainian kitsch, which had acquired new characteristics after the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The author sets the task to outline the reasons for the emergence of kitsch in contemporary Ukrainian visual art, among which the desire for the manifestation of national identity is dominating. During the report, the potential negative consequences of the process of spreading kitsch pieces of art outside of Ukraine will also be considered and possible ways to avoid them will be proposed.

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