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12 WWW.UNWLA.ORG “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЧЕРВЕНЬ 2014 MAIDAN, SHEVCHENKO, AND ART by Oksana Romaniv-Triska, Ph.D. Who could have thought that failure to sign a cooperation agreement between Ukraine and the European Union in the 21st century would become so intertwined with the events of 200 years ago? The revolutionary upheaval in Ky- iv from December of 2013 until February of 2014 aimed to change those in power. However, in that turbulent sea of human emotions there appeared several artistic phenomena which accompanied the revolution and turned out to be far from acci- dental. The creative spirit of Ukrainians mani- fested itself first and foremost in the different kinds of visual art on the Maidan—Yanukovych’s notorious New Year’s tree nicknamed “yolka,” decorated with posters and banners; New Year’s postcards by Illya Strongovsky; the statue of St. Nicholas which was put up on the Maidan; and the Christmas Nativity scene painted by artists from L’viv. The common need to reflect on the events taking place in Kyiv also led to the creation of the so-called “Art Barbakan”—four walls mounted on Kyiv’s central street Khreshchatyk where artists from all over Ukraine displayed their works. Besides the Revolution of Dignity, 2014 brought us the bicentennial of Taras Shevchenko. The events planned months in advance could not dominate life in Kyiv as the fate of the Ukrainian State was being decided in those days in Ukraine’s capital. All of a sudden posters from the series The Icons of the Revolution became the harbin- gers of victory: the images of Taras Shevchenko, Lesya Ukrainka, and Ivan Franko as contempo- rary revolutionaries appeared on February 10th on the walls of the buildings along the Khresh- chatyk. The poster of Shevchenko, signed with the line from his narrative poem “Hamaliya”—“The fire doesn’t burn the battle-hardened”—was etched in the memory of many a protester in those days. The posters were created and pub- lished online by an artist who chose to sign them with the nickname “Sociopath.” At a first glance, the use of Ukraine’s literary classics by young art- ists is surprising—these are the works universally mandated for study in Ukrainian schools. Yet it is perhaps the moments of profound crisis that help one fully appreciate the power of these writers’ thinking, and it is in such moments that Shev- chenko becomes exceedingly relevant in our daily lives. Sociopath, poster “The Fire Doesn’t Burn the Battle- Hardened” The artist chose a simple depiction of Shevchenko—the poet is wearing the traditional, even “archaic” Cossack hat but also a kerchief that covers half of his face, making his eyes stand out. The background includes crossed bottles—red- and-black “Molotov cocktails”—and that is all. Pathos has been replaced with concision, long tirades and speeches with a portrait-as-sign, which bespeaks Shevchenko’s presence with us— here and now. It turns out that he has been with us all the time and we simply did not notice... Andriy Yermolenko, one of the founders of the contemporary trend known as “zhlob-art” (which takes a highly ironic look at the contempo- rary Ukrainian society in some of its worst mani- festations), is less laconic. He created his Shev- chenko series long before the Euromaidan, having depicted the poet in a variety of contemporary roles—“Shevchenko the Superman,” “Shevchenko the Policeman,” “Shevchenko the King of Rock’n’Roll,” etc. Yermolenko commented on his interest in Ukraine’s premier poet: “Shevchenko! He was a fierce guy... The only individual who had no qualms about calling the Russian tsar names... To me, he is an example of a person of action. It’s time to act!” The exhibition of posters which adapted the image of Shevchenko to our current reality drew the public’s attention: on more than one occasion, I noticed visitors examining this
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