The Polish-Ukrainian International Seminar “Ukrainian Tuesdays”

A paper entitled “Born of Shock: Network‑Culture Texts as Evidence of the Catharsis Process in Ukrainian Art (2022–2025)” was presented during the Polish-Ukrainian International Seminar “Ukrainian Tuesdays”, held monthly at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The seminar was chaired and moderated by Prof. Paweł Lewczuk, a distinguished Polish and Ukrainian linguist and assistant professor at the Institute.

The seminar gathered more than fifty attendees and active participants in the lively discussion that followed the presentation.

The paper focused on presenting and analysing key theoretical categories, concepts and research terms, including: the catharsis of Ukrainian art, the conflictogenic nature of artistic works, network culture, cultural text, network‑culture text, primary text (“a text of culture within a text of culture”), and shared cultural text.

The presentation included an analysis of selected cultural texts present in the Instagram content of Ukrainian cultural media (@yourart, @liroomcomua, @moviegramua, @chytomo_books, @yabl.ua, @sensormedia.ua, @shtukango, @esthetic.intelligence, @kyiv_art and others). These materials document the process of catharsis—renewal, revival and purification—of Ukrainian art, while simultaneously exhibiting a conflictogenic character. Their essence, comprising formal, semantic and functional features, as well as their specificity, is directly linked to the experience of war.

The conclusions indicated that certain artistic categories and concepts show a clear tendency toward transformation within network culture, resulting in the deconstruction of their boundaries. This applies in particular to categories and notions such as “art”, “artistic quality” and “authorship”, whose meanings and functions undergo significant updating and enrichment through the practices of network culture.

Recording available on the YouTube channel of the “Ukrainian Tuesdays” seminar
Event on the IS PAN website
Event on Facebook