How to Understand Ukrainian Society through the Lens of Art and Culture
Ostrovska-Liuta, the Director General of the National Art and Culture Museum Complex “Mystetskyi Arsenal” (Art Arsenal), was uniquely suited to deliver a talk on the topic: she is the former First Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine and a contemporary art curator herself. In her talk, Ostrovska-Liuta noted that artists are particularly sensitive to the threats of Russia’s war, especially because much of Putin’s justification for it hinges on the erasure of Ukrainian culture and identity. Rather than the war subduing Ukrainian artists, they have taken up the call to serve as active witnesses to the war and defenders of the country’s culture.
Describing Ukrainian life as a “cascade of successive crises” (from the disaster at Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, to the colour revolutions of the early 2000s, Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, and now Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022) Ostrovska-Liuta explained that Ukrainians feel there is no sense of postponing one’s life or putting it on hold due to this most recent and most drastic escalation. For the Ukrainian society, she argued, the war incites the opposite need: the need to reflect exactly where you are without waiting. This pressing need for action has been taken up by Ukrainian artists such as Alevtina Kakhidze and Zhanna Kadyrova, whose art has been transformed by the war. Kakhidze, for example, tracked her experience living just 26 kilometers from Kyiv in February 2022, in a visual diary. Capturing her feelings moment by moment, this diary was a way to understand and cope with her situation through art. Not only was writing a diary an introspective process for grappling with the circumstances but it could also serve as a tool for other people to get a sense of the experience of war.
While we understand that art often blurs the line between reality and imagination, in this situation the reality has transgressed the bounds of the imaginable. Often the most visceral and spontaneous responses to the horrors of war are captured in art—whether those are sketches from a shelter, documentary footage, or non-fiction writing. But these artistic actions can take on real-life meaning, not only through their production, but in their service to various initiatives. Ostrovska-Liuta explained that many artists perceive their duty to be not only witnessing and creating but also giving: many artists transfer the proceeds from their artwork to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This answers the question of the role of an intellectual or an artist in the war. What is an artist’s contribution to victory efforts? It could be in the financial donations that are collected through the sale of an art piece. It could also be in sharing a story with wider global audiences who visit an exhibition of Ukrainian art. All of these efforts contribute to the defense of Ukraine and its culture from the attempts at its erasure.
For the recording of this engaging discussion, please follow this link.
