Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The purpose of the article is to analyse the features of the representation of war experience in the art projects of Maria Kulikovska. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the comprehensive analysis of M. Kulikovska’s work through the prism of war representation, which made it possible for the first time to systematize the artist’s main artistic strategies (performance, sculpture, work with public space) as means of understanding traumatic experience. The methodological basis of the study is an interdisciplinary approach. A comprehensive art historical analysis made it possible to explore the features of visual language and artistic strategies in M. Kulikovska’s work, iconographic and iconological analysis – to interpret symbolic images of war, body and trauma in art projects; contextual analysis – to consider the artist’s work in the socio-political and historical context of the war in Ukraine. Conclusions. M. Kulikovska’s work represents a complex and multidimensional experience of war, which combines personal experiences and collective traumatic narratives. The defining factor of her artistic practice is the experience of forced displacement, which leads to an appeal to the themes of exile, loss of home and the search for a new identity. The artist uses the body as a key medium in understanding war, transforming it into a political and socio-cultural tool. Through the combination of performance, sculpture and public space, she creates artistic practices that not only reflect traumatic experience, but also form a space for its reflection and rethinking. Of particular importance are such artistic strategies as the destruction of sculptures, the repetition of acts of violence in performances and the “reappropriation” of space, which allows the artist to regain control over her own identity and transform trauma into a form of artistic expression. In general, the work of M. Kulikovska demonstrates a new type of artistic thinking, in which the individual experience of war acquires universal significance, and art becomes a space for dialogue between the personal and the public.
Author: Olena Leontieva
Language: English
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7225100157