This course examines the unique trajectory of activist art in Ukraine within the broader global context, spanning from the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Navigating the complex interplay of politics and public art, social change, colonialism, and the visuality of resistance, the course provides participants with an in-depth understanding of interpretive approaches to art practices that extend beyond the confines of traditional galleries. It actively explores how these practices engage with grassroots civil movements, giving voice to subaltern.

Topics:

1. General Theory of Activist Art

2. Precursors: From Paris 1968 to Tiananmen

3. Ukraine's Activist Art Before 2013

4. Art Innervation During the Maidan Revolution

5. Art Resistance Against Russia's "Non-Invasion" of Ukraine

6. Art Breaking Through Ukraine-EU's Border

7. Activist Art After 2022 Full-Scale Invasion

Weibel, Peter. Global Activism: Art and Conflict in the 21st Century (MIT Press, 2014).

De Roo, Ruben, Liven de Cauter, and Karel Vanhaesebrouck. Art & Activism in the Age of Globalization (NAi Publishers, 2011).

McKee, Yates. Strike Art: Contemporary Art and the Post-Occupy Condition (Verso Books, 2016).

Lippard, Lucy R. “Trojan Horses: Activist Art and Power.” In Art after Modernism: Rethinking Representation, edited by Brian Wallis (New York, Boston, 1984), 340–358.

Kozak, Nazar. “Art Resistance and Russia's 'Non-Invasion' of Ukraine,” East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies 9/1 (2022): 67-104.

Kozak, Nazar. “Art Embedded into Protest: Staging the Ukrainian Maidan,” Art Journal 76/1 (2017): 8–27.

Registration required via:

https://plus.campus.kit.edu/signmeup/procedures/1711