Discourse of trauma as a source for "Cruel Optimism" in arts

The research project focuses on the transformative configurations of artists` visual practices in wartime Ukraine (2013-2023), their epistemological and epistemic essence. According to the research assumption, the discourse of the analysed visual practices is characterised by an increased representation of motifs and images related to the traumatic experience of the war after 24 February 2022. These practices demonstrate the dynamics of the artistic discourse created in wartime Ukraine and represent its key philosophical and aesthetic parameters, which correspond to the theme of cultural resistance in the period of "cruel optimism", redefined in the paradigm of the impact of the war on art in Ukraine. The vector of the research corresponds to contemporary philosophical and cultural approaches and methodological guidelines, in particular, in terms of representation of the concept of "cruel optimism" (L. Berlant, 2011), Marisol de la Cadena`s "The Complex We", "Ordinary Affects" (K. Stewart, 2007), "The Promise of Happiness" (S. Ahmed, 2010), etc. The mechanisms of connection between Berlant`s concept of "cruel optimism" and its representation in Ukrainian visual art of 2013-2023 in Ukraine are characterised. Berlant`s concept of "cruel optimism" allows us to reveal the cultural potential of visual forms and practices as tools for the implementation of identity construction and as a form of asserting an anti-colonial narrative in art. The study shows how the despair of destruction, pain, suffering, psychological trauma, a heightened sense of time due to the instability and threat of the surrounding space, the intensification of motifs of death and liminal states, as well as other key concepts that define the psychosocial landscape of war events in Ukraine, become a factor in creating a narrative in which these concepts find an impetus for transformation in the paradigm of "optimism" and the establishment of resistance through artistic reflection and visual practices. An important concept in the landscape of war and in the discourse of "cruel optimism" is the geographical factor and spatial localisation as such: it is advisable to identify key spatial existences in the situation of a full-scale invasion, individual marked loci that determine the socio-cognitive map of the current reality (mass graves, cemeteries, destroyed houses, devastated and destroyed cultural sites, towns and buildings destroyed by attacks, etc.). However, I would like to classify the unique situation created by this altered space, which, according to Kate McLoughlin, appears as a product of experience, geographical factors and transformations, and which ultimately requires a special awareness on the part of all those involved. De la Cadena defines all these participants through the category of the "complex we", demonstrating that the fragility of existence contributes to the consolidation of bios, geos and anthropos in order to find new forms of preserving existence in the paradigm of "cruel optimism" (L. Berlant), confirming the methodological guidelines of the American cultural critic and art theorist. The data sources for the project will be collected in the form of an up-to-date monitoring of artists` projects from different regions of Ukraine, including the territories that have been partially or fully occupied by russian troops since 24 February 2022. The monitoring will cover parts of the Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy and Zaporizhzhya regions, as well as those parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that were not part of the self- proclaimed `people`s republics` and came under russian control during the invasion in 2022. Part of the data collected will relate to the projects of artists who fled Ukraine as a result of the Russian invasion, which began on 24 February 2022. These artists share a common trauma caused by the intrusion of external violence into their lives. I am investigating whether they have experienced forced displacement and how the changing borders and demographic situation are becoming part of their art of the war landscape, what psycho-cultural and geo-cultural existences they are living in; how trenches and ditches on the front line have become a new space for creating art, and bomb shelters and basements in government-controlled and occupied territories have become representative sites; how art projects can highlight the challenges faced by the military, in particular their injuries, the need for rehabilitation and socialisation, etc. According to the research hypothesis, their works testify to despair, destruction and war crimes, but also to resistance, strength and endurance - all of which describe Ukraine`s struggle against Russian invasion. I will explore the change in social and behavioural patterns in the artistic environment in the context of the new stratification of society, when artistic reflection becomes a form of experimentation with the visual representation of potentially new forms of social interaction. Considering artists as witnesses and recorders (chroniclers) of contemporary war, I will outline the following key reference points that structure the "complex we": categories of psychological temporality (loss of security, destruction of the archetype of home, remoteness or, conversely, proximity to the epicentre of hostilities and attacks), epistemology (structures of consciousness in a war situation, the life-world of war), grammar (forms of representation) and affect (sensuality). Military aggression has also led to threats after February 2022, which have led to the destruction of the ecosystem in Ukraine, the disruption of the normal functioning of social and cultural infrastructure, etc. In this new bio-socio-political order, according to the methodological approaches and theory of M. de la Cadena, a new bio-geo-socio- political and anthropocene existence is being formed, realised in situations of special dispositional relations, which are manifested in practices of self-preservation and new identification, forced migration, the discourse of homelessness and the need to record the horrors of war. With the help of visual projects, chaos is subdued and "tamed" in order to establish and consolidate a "complex we". Art, especially visual practices, appears as a form of mediation of the experience of war, as an intention to structure it, to find adequate grammatical forms and discursive models. The motif of the loss of home and the search for a new home, as well as its possible cognitive and imaginative construction in the paradigm of the future, becomes one of the key motifs; the "complex we" finds itself in a situation of ontological homelessness: the fear of possible attack, emigration and physical change of residence, etc. has led to the reflection of the fears of the "complex we" at the level of motifs and images that are the product of artistic reflection by contemporary Ukrainian artists - from feelings of guilt, rethinking the archetypal dimension of the existence of home, to the destruction of the ecospace and the Earth as a whole. These concepts in artistic visual practices take on new configurations that become a factor in the realisation of "cruel optimism" (L. Berlant), the transformation of guilt and pain from a sense of loss and disorientation in new spaces into "optimism" for victory and a global future. Finally, in view of this, the hunt for the archetypal world order and its revision is determined by the following methodological optic:: By creating contemporary visual practices, we join them, forming a new paradigm of the "complex we" as a new type of community, which is realised in particular through the art of reflection represented in the visual objects analysed in my research, artistic practices that make it possible to transform pain, despair, suffering, etc. into material for expressing a consolidated reflection of victory and forming a narrative of resistance.