Museology and Curatorial Strategies in War-torn Post-soviet Kyiv
| Title of the project | Museology and Curatorial Strategies in War-torn Post-soviet Kyiv |
| Primary and secondary scientific disciplines | Fine Arts
Political Sciences |
| Description of the project | I am conducting research on Ukrainian contemporary art created in the conditions of hybrid war with Russia. I am particularly interested in institutional strategies of functioning, including their political involvement, as well as curatorial and artistic strategies. I study what narratives are present in the exhibition programs, what is the iconography of the war in Donbas, as presented in the exhibited works of art, what are the broadly understood curatorial and institutional strategies in the period from the end of 2013 (the beginning of the revolution at Maidan), through the annexation of Crimea, the beginning of the hybrid war in Donbas, until today.
Through the works of Ukrainian artists and their exhibitions, one can try to understand not only social moods, but also ways of building a new Ukrainian identity, and ways to understand one’s own history in the difficult period of political changes. The topics I am interested in are also connected with the transformation of the cultural space of Ukraine, which I study using postcolonial, museum and Marxist methods and theories. The point of reference for me is also the study of space as a result of social relations (topophilia). Starting from the moment of the transformation (1991 and the regaining of independence by Ukraine), I observe how cultural institutions shape memory and give historical narratives in a long-term perspective. I study cultural institutions and their architecture as places and forms of collective and cultural memory, spaces of politics and power, and spaces of postcolonial and post-Soviet transformation. |
| Characteristics and main objectives of the research project:
· study of the contemporary Ukrainian art created in the conditions of hybrid war with Russia · study of the conditions and relations of artistic production exhibited in chosen art institutions, as well as in the processes of collecting, contextualizing and exposition · study of the political involvement of Ukrainian art institutions as places and forms of collective and cultural memory, spaces of politics and power, and spaces of postcolonial and post-Soviet transformation · study of the curatorial and institutional narratives in the post-Maidan period. The project is conducted in cooperation with University of Cambridge. Principal supervisor: Prof. Jerzy Malinowski. Subsidiary supervisor: dr Filip Pręgowski. Foreign scientific advisor: dr Olenka Pevny. |