Critique of Emergency Reason. How to Write About Art During Wartime
Join us for a lecture by Borys Filonenko, an art critic, curator, writer, comic book artist and teacher from Kharkiv, on how to speak and write about art during wartime, and how to think critically about culture in times of crisis.
The fifth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion into Ukraine is approaching, and over these years the art sphere has gone through various stages: from a period with no art exhibitions to an overproduction of blockbuster exhibitions; from a new encounter with countries that supported Ukraine to a cooling of partnership relations. If, during the emergency phase, it was relatively easy to catalogue the key transformations and narratives in art and criticism, today the very practice of writing about art finds itself in a new cycle of uncertainty.
Starting with a general question: is the age of emergency over? How do shifts in criticism respond to changes in artistic practices, grassroots initiatives, and international platforms? If many processes in the cultural sphere have adapted to a “new normal”, does the application of an emergency mindset remain our primary mode of thinking?
Borys Filonenko
He is editor-in-chief of ist publishing, leading in particular a series of books about war and culture, translated into Ukrainian. He co-curated Ukraine’s national pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale (2022) and the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale (2023). He holds an MA in philosophy from Kharkiv Karazin National University. He is the author of several books including Louvre. Volodymyr Kostyrko. Yevhen Ravskyi (2017) and The Culture under pressure (2024). He also co-authored the graphic novel Near Mint, with artists Danylo Shtangeyev and Anton Reznik, as well as the comic strip Recounting Kharkiv, with Danylo Shtangeyev.
