Abstract
Since February 24, 2022, the discourse of visual arts in Ukraine has been characterised by a significant focus on revising and rethinking the topic of the ongoing war in the country since 2014. The author analyses the forms of art representation of the war in Ukraine based on visual projects and art practices in the dimension of existential resistance to cruel reality, which contribute to the narrative of Ukraine’s resistance. The article discusses the correlations between the art discourse and the figurative topic of war, which has become an integral part of the art landscape. The article suggests analysing the events in Ukraine during 2022–2023 in the paradigm of cruel optimism, which is exemplified by the art projects by Alexander Krolikowski, Fedir Alexandrovich, Kateryna Yakovlenko, Anton Logov, and others. A crucial aspect of the research involves delineating the inherent characteristics of the new imagery and language in visual arts. This allows the author to posit the realisation of the concept of “zero” language, which lacks conventional forms of expressiveness but embodies an objectification of depicted signs and motifs associated with archetypal structures and linked to thanatological discourse. It has been demonstrated that the use of thanatological discourse in visual art practices was the impetus for finding new vitality in the pathological reality of military necrophilia. The art discourse takes on an objective ground, with a clear demarcation line between the living and the dead, one’s own and alien, cruel and optimistic, etc.
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