{"id":841,"date":"2022-07-01T14:29:13","date_gmt":"2022-07-01T14:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/25\/?p=841"},"modified":"2022-07-01T17:29:27","modified_gmt":"2022-07-01T17:29:27","slug":"anima-art-for-peace-from-kharkiv-the-city-of-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/25\/anima-art-for-peace-from-kharkiv-the-city-of-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Anima Art for Peace from Kharkiv, the City of Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Julia Bili\u0144ska<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Julia Bili\u0144ska discusses the Anima Art for Peace<\/font> project, created during the war in Ukraine by students and lecturers from the Department of Animation Theatre Acting and Directing at the Kharkiv National Kotlyarevsky University of Arts. Bili\u0144ska looks at the project and theatre in Ukraine from the intersection between the present and past. She reflects on the great histories of Kharkiv theatre, its avant-garde experimentations and the development of contemporary puppetry theatre. These frame her report on the resilient theatre created during the shelling and bombing of the city, first to help children, later as a communal therapy and, finally, as an aesthetic digital experiment. Arguing for theatre as a call for peace, she also presents Ukrainian theatre as a laboratory and inherently European practice. Bili\u0144ska\u2019s essay adds to the discussions on precarity, affect and community in creative processes but also reveals new urgent methods related to digital puppetry and transmedia.

Keywords:<\/strong> affect, art therapy, transmedia, digital puppetry, puppetry<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project Anima Art for Peace<\/em> was born during the war in Ukraine. It consists of creative works by students from the Department of Animation Theatre Acting and Directing at the Kharkiv National Kotlyarevsky University of Arts. These are voices of artists from shelters<\/a>, evacuation, occupation and immigration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Kotlyarevsky University of Arts<\/a> is one of the leading and oldest universities in Ukraine. It is a creative, research and methodological centre for music and theatrical education in the Sloboda Ukraine region. In 2017, it celebrated its centenary. The university has prepared thousands of music and theatre professionals, including awarded performers, pedagogues and researchers. Approximately one thousand graduates have prominent and governmental awards, state scholarships, People\u2019s Artist of the Ukrainian Republic distinctions, distinguished artist awards for lifetime achievements in art, doctoral degrees and professorial and associate professor titles.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Academic State Puppet Theatre in Kharkiv. Photo: Web\/Wikipedia<\/a><\/em>\u2014Creative commons. Accessed 29 June 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The history of the Department of Animation relates to the history of the professional puppet theatre in Kharkiv. The Academic State Puppet Theatre of Afanasiev<\/a> opened in Kharkiv on July 1, 1939. It is the only puppetry theatre in Ukraine and has had many performances for adult audiences in its repertoire, historically and at present. It is named after Viktor Afanasiev (1917\u201387), who started its revival in 1952 as the artistic director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afanasiev was an eminent director, acclaimed manager and vice-president of the Soviet UNIMA<\/a> (International Union of Puppeteers). He gathered around himself and his theatre the Kharkiv creatives and cultural elite, making the puppet theatre a centre of the city\u2019s artistic life and the pride of Kharkivians. Afanasiev managed the theatre until 1980.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Kharkiv National Kotlyarevsky University of Arts. Photo: Web\/Wikipedia<\/a><\/em>\u2014Creative commons. Accessed 29 June 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

During his leadership, the Academic State Puppet Theatre presented The Ukrainian Nativity Scene<\/em>, which became a landmark event in Ukrainian culture in the twentieth century. Oleksandr Iniutoshkin directed the 1975 production, and artist Oleksiy Shcheglov made the puppets. Together, they transformed the Ukrainian folk tradition of vertep<\/em>\u2014a mobile puppet theatre enacting the Nativity scene\u2014into a professional and contemporary theatre setting. This was after the Soviet authorities banned many previous attempts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of this first-ever professional production of vertep<\/em>, the folk phenomenon did not disappear with the loss of its social and religious functions\u2014as it happened, for example, to the Polish szopka<\/em> or Belarusian betleika<\/em>. Instead, vertep <\/em>was revived into a new kind of theatrical performance, which is unique worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, many festivals are dedicated to the Ukrainian vertep<\/em> tradition. Vertep<\/em>\u2014as a form and philosophical concept\u2014has inspired contemporary music, arts and theatre. At the Kharkiv Department of Animation Theatre, vertep<\/em> traditions and their contemporary forms are a compulsory part of training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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