Tag: art in war

Since March I have edited Letters in Exile with Maria Agureeva. Artillery generously offered Maria and other artists who had fled Ukraine and Russia an important platform from which to express their feelings, voice their grief and protest, and to share stories of courage and compassion.

There are two books I have recalled while editing. In one, by the diplomat and historian George Kennan, he expressed in the 1960s that the two most important issues to be solved in our life time are climate degradation and nuclear proliferation. As we see in Russia and Ukraine, they are inextricably linked with the ongoing state sponsored violence. The other book, The March of Folly by historian Barbara Tuchman, looks at the avoidable but mindless paths to war, ecological catastrophe, and destruction of civilizations, even though the people of those time knew better. It seems to me there is a dominant strain of reactionary violence in collective human behavior that is deeply disturbing.

The words of the Buddhist activist Thich Nhat Hahn helps show me a sane way forward; “To prepare for war, to give millions of men and women the opportunity to practice killing day and night in their hearts, is to plant millions of seeds of violence, anger, frustration and fear that will be passed on for generations to come. We know very well that airplanes, guns and bombs cannot remove wrong perceptions. Only loving speech and compassionate listening can help people correct wrong perceptions. The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.”  —Clayton Campbell, Editor

 

Maria Agureeva

I want to end Letters in Exile for now with the release of a sixth installment, #NoWar. To all of you who have followed my blog, from my heart I wish to thank you very much; to the long list of everyone who took part in previous blogs, helped my family leave Russia, and especially to the artists who have spoken their truth through Letters in Exile. Because of this unexpected and incredible support, I will be back in Los Angeles soon, and will resume my life there. There were moments I didn’t think this would happen, and now I look forward to how my practice will unfold, informed by my experiences.

I spoke with Digital Art Month’s curator Jess Conatser to highlight artists creating AR and video artwork that inspires peace and stands for #NOWAR in Ukraine. The festival is organized and curated by Elena Zavelev, Andrea Steuer of CADAF & Jess Conatser of Studio As We Are.

For AR please use your phone to access them.

 

Hermine Bourdin

 

https://www.instagram.com/ar/314068410688765/

Dance for peace is the performance of the French dancer Eugenie Drion re-transcribed on one of my sculptures using MOCAP.

 

Yamid Botina

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg70rHEVYo4

Botina’s approach to the conflict in Ukraine, based on the things that cannot be destroyed.

 

Maria Agureeva

 

https://www.instagram.com/tv/Cda7_ERAViH/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

How quickly we forgot about Love. How often we perceive the heart as only an organ, as a motor that carries through the body, along with blood, gunpowder of war, fear, hatred, confusion and other toxins.

But our hearts are so much more. It is an object that exists simultaneously in billions of universes, where Love resides— the very first of them.

 

Clayton Campbell

 

These days a density of fractured images have arrived in my disturbed sleep.

Despairing of the inevitability of Men; their fogs of war, addictive cravings for spilling blood, sexual subjugation, unscripted power stripped of knowledge, wisdom, and compassion,

We travel onward through the dark night of the soul in our Ghost Ships.

 

Jullian Young

 

https://www.instagram.com/ar/5230824633642795/

This artwork places you inside a crumbling red cage surrounded by bluebirds whose yellowish tint is only cast in light

 

 

Kushtrim Juniku

 

https://www.instagram.com/ar/511333743820354/

NO WAR is an AR effect that inspires to speak up against the war in Ukraine .

 

Zoran Poposki

 

 

https://vimeo.com/697821931/cbc89c0045

“Peace Piece” is a short animated video generated by artificial intelligence (AI) in collaboration with award-winning contemporary artist and director Polyptech.

The visuals are a series of AI-generated artworks created by Polyptech through text-to-image synthesis utilizing a neural network. The neural network has been trained by Polyptech through thousands of iterations to generate visuals based on a string of keywords associated with peace, such as pacifism, no war, harmony, demilitarization, empathy, love, human rights, social justice, sisterhood, humanity, love, etc.

The lyrics in the video represent an AI-generated poem co-written with Polyptech, based on Emily Dickinson’s reflection upon peace and belonging, “I many times thought Peace had come”. The AI uses a generative text model developed by Open AI, leveraging machine learning and deep learning to achieve the generation of natural language.

The music in the film is a generative sound piece created by an AI music algorithm.

Editor’s Note: If you would like to donate to Ukrainian relief efforts, you may make a direct contribution to the Global Giving Ukrainian Relief Fund at this link. Or please donate to a charity of your choice that will assist the people of Ukraine.

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/ukraine-crisis-relief-fund/

 

 

Artists are experiencing a sense of gratitude for the unexpected support and basic kindness shown to them. In the midst of exile and displacement, often the best of humanity reasserts itself.

As Maria says in her fifth blog, “So many of my friends and colleagues who were also forced to leave Russian and Ukraine tell incredible stories. I asked some artists to share their stories.”

Two persons, Maxim Zmeyev, a photojournalist; and a young musician, Yaroslav Dimov, share their stories. —Clayton Campbell

 

April 20, 2022

 

Recently I was at a reception at the Czech embassy and for almost 1.5 hours the discussion was only about the war. Secular meetings become like “war councils.” People raised issues that are now worrying everyone: how such an event is possible in the 21st century, how to help Ukraine, or will there be a nuclear incident as the war expands? However, several speakers said that now it is an important task to support the artists, journalists or dissident musicians who do not support the existing regime in Russia.

Before I fled Moscow, I was isolated, alone. I feel such incredible support now! I have never received so much help from friends and strangers from other countries. I had believed that people’s humanity in the Metaverse era was in short supply. Yet now a hundred thousand acts of unselfish generosity have awakened people into a spirit of gratitude. Everyone helps each other, and I have been deeply touched.

When the war began, friends stepped up, finding a residence for me and my daughter in Berlin. An American foundation unhesitatingly gave me a grant that has allowed us to survive. And miracles continue to happen in my life. This gives me hope not to give up and continue to engage in art, to which I have dedicated my entire conscious life.

 

 

So many of my friends and colleagues who were also forced to leave Russia and Ukraine relate incredible stories. I asked some artists to share their stories:

“My name is Maxim Zmeyev, I am 35 years old and a contemporary artist and photojournalist. I was a photographer for Reuters, as well as a freelance photographer for the AFP and independent media in Russia. Russian troops attacked Ukraine on February 24 on the orders of Russian President Putin. Russia’s aggression continues to this day. As I write this letter the Russian military continues to destroy Ukrainian cities and kill Ukrainians. This is a fact and from March 4, 2022 the Russian Federation could see up to 15 years in prison for disseminating or discussing this fact. On March 5, I flew to Istanbul where I am now. I’m looking for an opportunity to move to Europe or America and am in contact with Journalists Without Borders—who are trying to help me. I hope I will have the opportunity to live on. I have a friend who is a French journalist, Anne. She is helping me a lot right now and gives me hope. It’s very important to feel that if you’re from Russia, it doesn’t mean that the whole world hates you. For people like me who are against the war, it gives hope that peace can come.”

 

 

“My name is Yaroslav Dimov, I am 18 years old, from Kiev. All my life I have tried to give people positive emotions through music. In October 2021, my friends and I created a group and we intensively gave concerts in popular venues in the capital, where many came to hear our work. Our goal was for people to learn to listen to each other. On the third day of the war, I miraculously managed to leave my home and get rid of the hellish sounds that Russian rockets made, I just wanted to live. The road to Europe was for me a leap into the unknown and a step towards a new life. In Berlin, My family and I were treated with understanding, care and support. Kind people helped us with a place to stay and every day they offer their help; it’s cool that they consider us their friends. Our neighbors provided a few musical instruments and space to practice my music. Here I met musicians from Ukraine and we managed to participate in several charity concerts in support of our country. We believe that goodwill overcome evil and music will help this.”

It seems to me that against the backdrop of this ongoing madness, we should unite and help each other—the only way to endure. The whole world now feels vulnerable and only unity can help to survive. Our strength is in unity and the ability to hear each other.

As I prepare to leave Berlin at the end of the month, nothing is certain. The war could ripple through more countries, creating widespread financial ruin and devastation. Or, it might stop, and the world will blossom with the spring.

 

 

To be continued…

—Maria Agureeva

 

 

Editor’s Note: If you would like to donate to Ukrainian relief efforts, you may make a direct contribution to the Global Giving Ukrainian Relief Fund at this link. Or please donate to a charity of your choice that will assist the people of Ukraine.

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/ukraine-crisis-relief-fund/

 

 

As Maria was working on Blog 4, I happened upon an article about photographer Edward Burtynksy, who is of Ukrainian descent and still has family there. He was scheduled to photograph in Ukraine this year for other reasons than the war. His work has been postponed. He said of what is happening in Ukraine and Russia, and that Maria’s blog speaks directly to, “Unbelievable, the amount of hate and trauma that’s being inflicted. [Putin]’s destroying the future of a whole generation of Russians and traumatizing the whole country of Ukraine. It’ll take generations to heal.”

Artists respond to war situations in various ways, as anyone would be. When undergoing stress and trauma caused by dislocation, loss of statehood, livelihood, physical harm and perhaps death, people are changed physically and emotionally. Overtime, personality and values are taken over by trauma responses, making living life so difficult because all trust is gone. What is happening in Ukraine and Russia is a cautionary tale for free-minded people, seeing how easy it has been for personal freedoms to be taken away by an autocratic, conservative government. Maria suggests that artists can, in spite of everything that may happen to them, find the way back again to a full embrace of life. —Clayton Campbell

 

 

April 15, 2022

The mission was impossible.

Since the ’90s, when the first contemporary galleries appeared in Russia, art began to actively develop and be included in the international context. After 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, everything changed. Perhaps we created our own bubble of illusions, inflated more and more as Russian artists found success. What we thought we were building, a free-minded cultural community, did not transfer to the vast majority of Russians. They had no interest in our values and creative pursuits.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, restrictive regulations on artmaking were canceled and for the next 20 years artists could fight for the freedom of their art without fear of punishment from the state. Integration into the global cultural space supported this illusion: that Russian art could be free. This is the era I grew up in as an artist. But another fate was prepared for us.

There was some change in those two decades. The influence of contemporary art helped to penetrate a historically unfree land. Surveys from 2021 show that at least 30% of the Russian population put freedom as their first priority and do not support repressive actions by state authorities. Yet this minority has been silenced as artists are now squeezed out of their country.

This liberal change of sensibility, especially in younger generations, threatened the government. Over the past five years censorship in Russia has returned. High-profile artists have been publicly punished. Kirill Serebrennikov, born in Ukraine, is one of the most prominent theater directors in Russia. He spoke out against the Russian annexing of Crimea. As a result, his apartment was raided shortly after. He was sentenced in June 2020 to a three-year suspended prison sentence and was also issued a fine over trumped-up charges of embezzlement. A Moscow court canceled the suspended sentence after questioning the filmmaker twice last month. The director left Russia two weeks ago and is residing in Germany.

 

 

In another example of public shaming, feminist artist and LGBTQ+ activist Yulia Tsvetkova is on trial in Russia, facing charges of disseminating pornography based on her artwork featuring the naked female body. She was arrested in November 2019 and was forced to pay two fines under Russia’s notorious “gay propaganda” law. She remained under house arrest until March 16, facing up to six years in prison if found guilty of illegally producing and distributing pornographic materials on the internet. The current case has terrible implications for the future of women’s rights in Russia, as it marks the first time an activist has faced criminal charges to produce feminist art.

 

 

Authority of most kinds has never trusted art. Art makes it possible to think critically. People who contest various forms of power and control are uncomfortable to the status quo. We are viewed by Authority as uncontrollable. Like a mindless machine the State can only suppress, alienate or kill us.

In the supposed socialism of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev (former Russian president) recently stated that Russian culture will not close itself off from the world, but will focus on “adequately minded people”, those who share and support their position. This is about staying in power

Four years ago, when I left for Los Angeles, I was able to feel the whole abyss that still separates the contemporary art of Russia and other free countries. It has become, I fear, an unbridgeable chasm.

 

 

The liberal change of sensibility in the last 20 years, especially in younger generations, threatens the government. I can definitely say that the generation of my daughter, who is now 16 years old, is completely different. They have a sense of empathy, lack of fear, and think freely. More than 400 teenagers were detained in Moscow in February and March at anti-war rallies. As a result, on February 24, 19 protocols were drawn up to punish a perceived failure by parents to fulfill their obligations to raise minors, due to the participation of children in rallies. They include fines and possible deprivation of parental rights in case of repeated detention.

 

 

It is beginning to seem that the war will continue for a long time; the wreckage of Ukrainian museums and concert halls will smoke in ruins for more years; the Russian cultural spaces supporting truly free art will return not soon. Russian President Putin recently spoke live on Russian TV and voiced a phrase popular in his circles: “The war between Russia and the United States will continue until the last Ukrainian.”

 

It’s hard for me to imagine now how artists will come out of this meat grinder. It may only be possible to truly talk about this only after the end of the shooting. What Ukrainian and Russian artists are now experiencing will sooner or later be embodied in their work. This will be a whole stage in the global cultural agenda. And it shouldn’t be lost, blurry. This should be accepted, comprehended as part of a new culture, even more free!

 

It seems to me that most artists I am meeting and hearing from have quickly developed a different attitude to their work. I am rethinking my past work and the topics covered. There is a greater sense of responsibility. The topics of ecology, gender issues, our future, have not lost their relevance, but now my focus has shifted, everything becoming much sharper and more subtle.

I invite other artists to share with me what they are experiencing today and I will publish it on my blog.

—Maria Agureeva

 

 

Editor’s Note: If you would like to donate to Ukrainian relief efforts, you may make a direct contribution to the Global Giving Ukrainian Relief Fund at this link. Or please donate to a charity of your choice that will assist the people of Ukraine.

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/ukraine-crisis-relief-fund/