Ambicoloniality and War: The Ukrainian-Russian Case (Palgrave Macmillan 2024)

This book proposes a new notion of “ambicoloniality” to speak about the current situation when Ukraine has become Russia’s territory of obsession, and Russia, in its desire to occupy Ukraine, has in effect subjected itself to Ukraine’s symbolic dominance. Ambicoloniality presents a key point of divergence from already existing models. The mutual impact of the two countries over centuries has gone both ways, over a shared border — in contrast to many other empires that established their colonial power relations at a distance. The Ukrainian-Russian case is very different from the examples covered by both postcolonial and decolonial theorists. To explore the reasons and consequences of such a differing process of colonial expansion, anti-colonial struggle, and decolonial release, the book inquires into the historical and cultural reasons for the emerging gap between the two states. It examines the role that cultural hybridity plays in political self-identification in both Ukraine and Russia, and how this hybridity has manifested in society and culture (including examples of art and literature) following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, until 2023.

Art in Ukraine between Identity Construction and Anti-Colonial Resistance (Routledge 2024)

This edited volume traces the development of art practices in Ukraine from the 2004 Orange Revolution, through the 2013–2014 Revolution of Dignity, to the ongoing Russian war of aggression.  Contributors explore how transformations of identity, the emergence of participatory democracy, relevant changes to cultural institutions, and the realization of the necessity of decolonial release have influenced the focus and themes of contemporary art practices in Ukraine. The chapters analyze such important topics as the postcolonial retrieval of the past, the deconstruction of post-Soviet visualities, representations of violence and atrocities in the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine, and the notion of art as a mechanism of civic resistance and identity-building.

With texts by Asia Bazdyrieva, Svitlana Biedarieva, Kateryna Botanova, Kateryna Filyuk, Illia Levchenko, Alisa Lozhkina, Ksenia Nouril, Oleksandra Osadcha, Ewa Sułek, and Jessica Zychowicz, and a preface by Vitaly Chernetsky.