Category Archives: Contemporary Art in Ukraine

Ukraine United Under the Exclusion Zone

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The Exclusion Zone is the area around surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, which became contaminated in April of 1986 due to an explosion and fire which sent radioactive particles into the air in the surrounding area of the former USSR and some parts of eastern Europe.  The Exclusion Zone is said to be home to approximately 200 people, most of which are believed to be elderly.

A United Ukraine, in Photographs.

The article above is about Arthur Bondar, a man born and raised in Ukraine, who remembers the beauty and national identity that was forged amongst Ukrainians after World War II.  Bondar is an acclaimed photographer and began documenting life in the Excluded Zone only a few years ago. But, soon after starting his original project, he realized it was necessary for him to photograph Ukraine in its entirety, to show its true beauty.

This video entitled Shadows of Wormwood (I was unable to embed) is almost bone chilling.  But he uses the short videos and what I assume are sounds taken from his visits to the Exclusion Zone to illustrate what life is like there.

In his book entitled Where My Childhood Died Bondar says: “I do not know whether it became better life after USSR collapsed and Ukraine gained independence or not. But I can say surely, that we’ve lost something very important and meaningful, something that made us enjoy our life. …or we just grew up…”.  This collection of photos begins the early years of his life with his family, and a seemingly prosperous Ukraine, eventually showing the downfall of Ukrainian infrastructure.  With the quote mentioned above, it seems that Bondar is alluding to the fact that Ukraine may have been a stronger nation under the USSR, but in the same quote retracts his statement with “…or we just grew up…”.  I think he is trying to say that eventually Ukraine will sustain itself, but it is going to take cooperation between the government and the people, something many government officials seem to be having trouble with.

This Photo taken in 1994:

And this one taken in 2012, is just an example of the comparisons Bondar makes:

The latest of his series is entitled Maidan Criminals is a project showing the judicial and constitutional systems in Ukraine from differing points of view during the conflict in 2013 and early 2014.  He outlines how protestors could be imprisoned using laws and cases form the crime codes.  It illustrates how vulnerable the people of Ukraine are against the current regime, and raises the question regarding the difference between heroes and criminals.  While the Photos included are very powerful and show the struggle of Ukrainians, it is not in English, therefore I am unable to get the artists reasoning behind why they are included.

 

Russian and Ukrainian Fondness…Warm like a Soviet Winter

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Many articles dealing with the conflict in Ukraine are either from the point of view of a political activist, random citizen, or of a government official.  The article “Mud and Loathing On Russia-Ukraine Border” tells the story from that of the Russians who live closest to the border, and they have very different ideas regarding the reason for troubles between the two countries.

Russia and Ukraine share a boarder that stretches about 1,345 miles, and the borderland between the two countries on the Russian side seems to have a very candid view of Ukrainians, which seems to have been in effect since the fall of the Soviet Union.  This cannot be said, however, for all Russians living near the border, as a few of them have not felt, nor do they feel now, any animosity towards their Ukrainian neighbors.  There are however, many in the forbidden zone going back to the old Soviet idea of searching for enemies that can be blamed for the conflict.

The most surprising part of this article is the repetition of the idea that Ukrainians have been taught to hate Russians, but it seems the other way around.  One of the people interviewed even called them fascist and compared Ukrainians to Nazis and Hitler.  In reality, at least from an outsiders perspective, it seems as though the FSB, successor to the KGB, is using propaganda to promote hatred toward Ukraine by Russians.  They see Ukraine’s fighting the invasion by Russia as a hatred by Ukrainians of all things Russian, therefore churning more hatred toward Ukraine.  But thats not to say the same thing isn’t happening all over Ukraine…

  

But the feeling of hatred toward Ukraine from Russia seems to be a more prominent and respected feeling, and to say the least, is backed by a much larger and stronger military force.

The only way to look at this from an outsiders perspective is to try and see both sides of the story: Yes, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, and after the fall the people of Ukraine did try and spread themselves away from anything that was Russian.  But looking at Russia from a Ukrainian perspective, especially with the evidence included in this article, the population still seems to have a very high proportion of people with Soviet ideas. From the Russian perspective, its hard for Russians to agree with Ukrainians, the people who took the capital of their beloved Soviet Union away from them and created a capitalist government almost overnight, while they still remained under a seemingly communist government.

In the plainest language possible, it looks as if the Ukrainians took the Russians lego castle, and now the Russians want it back.

Architecture of Ancient Ukrainian Culture still being seen Today.

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As we learned in the first weeks of class, Ukrainian culture and history is tied deeply to other ancient civilizations being as the country basically came from nothing overnight after the fall of the Soviet Union.  Not to say that Ukraine doesn’t have its own history, obviously the melding of these ancient cultures in the geographic area of Ukraine created a certain type of feeling or Ukrainianism,  which most definitely has a colorful history.

Ukrainian architecture has links to medieval Europe, Slavic Tribes, and Greek and Roman Colonies of the Black Sea Region.  One of the main connections that can be made in Ukrainian architecture that can still be seen today is the use of stone as a construction material in churches which comes from the Byzantine Empire.  The Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev (below) is an excellent example of this style.

 

As you can see, this is also a connection to the Orthodox religion, practiced in Ukraine.  The style of architecture of the church is the very same as The Hagia Sophia located in Constantinople (below).

The two churches share very similar styles under the Byzantium empire.

The Kozak Aristocracy laid the bricks to defining baroque style of architecture in Ukraine.  Baroque architecture can be seen in 17th and 18th century Europe, and was a style which not only sought after a richer more elaborate exterior, but also a very well decorated and ornate interior.  The Mariinsky Palace in Kiev (below) is a good example of this period of architecture, with its elaborate walls, gates gardens and fountains; not to mention the inside.

This Baroque Period is what also gave rise to the Palace of Versailles in France.

Upon arriving to the 19th Century, there begins to be a more Empire style of architecture in Ukraine that flooded in from the west.

One of the most interesting elements when observing the architecture in Ukraine is the fact that it is tied very closely with the west in almost all respects.  Furthermore, the west has ties to capitalism, meaning that since medieval times, Ukraine has been ever so slightly moving closer and closer to a capitalistic style of architecture.  The use of space as a political setting is very important here because it shows that the architects noticed how advanced the west was becoming through capitalism, and realized that this was the way to progress the geographic area and eventual Ukrainian Society, as a whole.

Heterotopia

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This reading, while not really a reading at all, was extremely confusing and difficult to connect to what we have currently been talking about in class.  The use of synonyms made the paragraphs broken up, and somewhat difficult to keep up with.  It was not until reaching the end of the last page that I discovered this was not an article, nor was it an excerpt from a book, but a lecture.  Had I known this from the beginning I possibly would have been able to keep more of an open mind about what Foucault was saying; however this is not the case and the seemingly mindless rambling was confusing and heavily worded, therefore causing me to almost resent his viewpoints altogether.

Trying to get a better view of what he was talking about when mentioning ‘heterotopology,’ which isn’t exactly included in any dictionaries, I decided to try Google out for help, this is what I found: POST-STRUCTURALISM AND FOUCAULT About 3/4 down the page there is a heading titled “Foucault and Heterotopia.” Under this heading it explains simply that the definition of heterotopia in Foucault’s terms is the ‘other space,’ or ‘counter sites’ taken up by people, places, things, etc.. and heterotopology as the systematic approach that analyzes and the features of this other space he is referring to.  This other space is where the rules change for the subject.  Take the sailor for example: he lives his life at sea playing by certain rules, yet when he goes on land, he must change the way he acts because he is now in the other space, another heterotopia.  After being able to define heterotopia, it became much clearer what Foucault was discussing in his lecture.

He goes on to examine the coexistence of different, incompatible places which all exist in the same real place.  Acknowledging first that heterotopias exist in all cultures, and is a constant part of every human group.  Then describing how heterotopias can have only one function or another, not both.  They are capable of juxtaposing, dealing with closely together for contrasting effect in a single place, or even several places, that are themselves, incompatible.  Further stressing the incompatibility of the different heterotopias.  There are those which are meant to be eternal, like libraries and museums, and those which are not, like festivals and nudist vacation camps.  Heterotopias can be as simple as a sauna, which by most standards is purely hygienic, or very rich in spiritual value such as churches and other holy places.

The most substantial part of the lecture, at least in my opinion, is the Sixth Principle.  “The last trait of the heterotopias is that they have a function in relation to all the space that remains. This function unfolds between two extreme poles.” These poles being heterotopia of illusion, and of compensation.  Heterotopia of Illusion exposes very real space, all the site in which human life is partitioned.  Heterotopia of Compensation is to create a space that is another real space, somewhat like the Puritans who settled in America and thought it to be the perfect space when compared to other places.

In his closing remarks, Michel Foucault says “In civilizations without boats, dreams dry up, espionage takes the place of adventure, and the police take place of pirates.” With these few final words, he is able to sum up the entire idea of hetertopias not being interchangeable, but coexisting simultaneously in the same, yet different space.

So, while I was initially turned off to what was being said because of  the language being used, after looking deeper into the subject it became more interesting and did, in fact, explain the difference between utopias (which do not exist) and Heterotopias which must exist for the world to function.

Here is a link to a video describing Foucault’s Six Principles of Heterotopia:

 

Airport Battle Rages in Donetsk. Ukrainians Manage to keep hold of the strategic Airport #DonetskAPortRage

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Battle for Airport Control in Donetsk has no end in sight.

The above video shows a brief overview of the battle between Ukrainian Soldiers, who have held their position since late May, and Criminally-backed insurgents.  The small group of soldiers is working so hard to keep this militant force down so they do not lose the valuable port to Russia.

Here is a photo of the Donetsk Sergey Prokofiev International Airport before the fighting began.

And here is a more recent Picture. (although neither picture contained precise dates of posting) You can see the damage being done by the fighting taking place inside the airport.
You can tell from the first photo that the architecture style used in construction is modern, and shows a very contemporary style seen in many Western European examples, as well as some in the United States.  The main question when dealing with this is how will all of this infrastructure be rebuilt? Once conflict in Ukraine has ended, where will the money come from to rebuild large buildings such as the Donetsk Airport, and other historic landmarks which have been destroyed during the conflict in the past 9 months.
The Pro-Russian Militant forces are being subdued by the Ukrainian Army, which is keeping it out of the wrong hands.  Russia’s goal, however, is not to only take out certain areas of Ukraine such as Donetsk or even the capitol city Kiev.  Russia’s goal is to take down the entire Ukrainian government and resurrect the Soviet Union.