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Exploring Situatedness in Partnership with ELIA, Part 1
  • ISSN: 1474-273X
  • E-ISSN: 2040-0896

Abstract

The article studies situatedness in relation to a crisis caused by Russian military aggression towards Ukraine, artistic reactions of Kharkiv-based musicians to the war and its consequences. Theoretical aspects of the phenomenon of situatedness in art and the topic of artists’ creativity during the wartime are regarded; the state of artistic life and education in Kharkiv is studied, both before and during the war. The necessity of a decolonization approach in Ukrainian artistic education is stressed, the results of this process being refusal of usage of Russian educational, scholarly and artistic content, intensification of integration into international educational and scholarly space, fruitful synthesis of Ukrainian educational and scholarly traditions and international experience. It is proven that the war has engendered a counterreaction among artists, which manifested in a sequence of unique artistic situations in Kharkiv as a near-frontline city, in other cities of Ukraine and abroad. It is shown how the performative activity of talented Kharkiv-based musicians D. Karachevtsev and I. Chernyavsky takes place not only in the safe locations but also in the spaces aestheticized by the situatedness of the war: on the streets, near the ruined buildings, in the underground. Specifics of the ‘war works’ by O. Shchetynsky, D. Malyi, K. Palachova and V. Bohatyrov are studied, which can be seen in the reduction of the difficulty of the musical language, usage of Ukrainian folklore (either as stylization or as quotation) and the prevalence of quiet music. The extreme contrast between artistic and real spaces becomes a background on which the inversion of situatedness of the war occurs: one can observe a powerful surge of achievements of the artists. This real-life situation subjects to aestheticization in art, and opens unique creative possibilities.

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • ELIA UAx Platform, Abakanowicz Arts and Culture Charitable Foundation (AACCF)
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/content/journals/10.1386/adch_00109_1
2025-05-14
2026-04-22

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/content/journals/10.1386/adch_00109_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): art; creativity; crisis; decolonization of education; higher education; music; war

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