ХУДОЖНЬО-ОБРАЗНЕ ТА ЗМІСТОВНЕ ВТІЛЕННЯ НАРОДНИХ ТРАДИЦІЙ В УКРАЇНСЬКОМУ ТЕАТРІ ПОЧАТКУ XX СТОЛІТТЯ (ЗА МАТЕРІАЛАМИ ЖУРНАЛУ "НОВЕ МИСТЕЦТВО")

The purpose to demonstrate the implementation of folk traditions in the 1920s scenography on the example of two theatrical performances: “Sava Chaly” (Theatre “Berezil,” Kharkiv, 1927) and “The Fair at Sorochyntsi” (State Ukrainian Opera, Kyiv, 1925) based on the materials of the archival editions of the “New Art” journal (Kharkiv, 1925–1928). Methodology. The methodological basis of the study is a systematic approach, methods of synthesis, generalization, comparative historical and art history analysis. Results. The review of the archival issues of the weekly “New Art” journal allowed to confirm that folk traditions played a prominent role in theatre art at the beginning of the XX century and served as a source of inspiration for scenographers, composers, performers etc. The study indicates the importance of the “New Art” journal as a primary source of information on the cultural events in Ukraine. Based on its issues, the study analyses the publications and photo materials on the scenography of the “Sava Chaly” (Theatre “Berezil,” Kharkiv, 1927) and “The Fair at Sorochyntsi” (State Ukrainian Opera, Kyiv, 1925) performances. The elements of Ukrainian folk art in these performances were emphasised. It is noted that evocation of the folk traditions in the scenography was both a showcase and a guarantee of the preservation of the ethnocultural phenomena in the theatrical environment of the period. The novelty of the study is the identification of the specifics of the use of folk traditions and ethnic elements in the scenography of the 1920s, as well as the introduction into the scientific discourse of the “New Art” journal's issues, which offer materials on the implementation of the folk traditions by directors, stage designers and performers. The practical significance. The study can be useful for research of the history of Ukrainian scenography; the analysis of the artistic heritage of stage designers of the XX century's leading theatres is vital for enriching the modern Ukrainian stage design.

“...This plan was conceived by me...”: On the background of D. Merezhkovskiy’s forgotten letter to the editors of the “Mir Iskusstva”

The paper clarifies the circumstances of the publication of a little-known letter by D. Merezhkovskiy in the “Mir Iskusstva” (“World of Art”) journal. The letter was published under the same rubric as a letter by Yu. Ozarovskiy, director of the Alexandrinsky Theatre, a person far from the journal’s editorial board, giving the impression of a public debate between like-minded people. Recreating the details of the struggle for setting ancient Greek tragedies in D. Merezhkovskiy’s translations on the stages of Russian theatres, based on forgotten publications of those years, indicates that the staging of “Hippolytus”, a tragedy by Euripides, was regarded by the “Mir Iskusstva” association as evidence of the effectiveness of their program in the struggle for new theatrical art. It was not D. Merezhkovskiy who played the leading role in this process, as he wrote in his letter, but D. Filosofov, who sought to stage the tragedy as a mystery play. Disagreements between D. Merezhkovskiy and the creative association of the “Mir Iskusstva” appeared later, when their aesthetic, religious, and philosophical views began to differ. However, during the production of “Hippolytus”, these differences did not prevent them from participating in joint projects as a new artistic force. It should be recognized that ancient Greek tragedies in D. Merezhkovskiy’s translations played a part in the history of the Russian theatre: the debate about the concept of performances, the specifics of L. Bakst’s sets, and musical accompaniments was an important step in the development of the theatre in expanding its expressive capabilities.

Shaping the Avant-Garde

Soviet Constructivism is a central reference for the American art journal October (founded in 1976 and still in print today). This article discusses the ways in which October refers to that historical art movement, while overlooking some of its key political aspirations. Especially during the journal’s founding years, the discursive association with Soviet Constructivism served to bestow criticality, urgency, and sociopolitical relevance on the American art journal. Furthermore, with the reference to Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov, in particular, the October protagonists have positioned themselves in a specific manner within mid-1970s art critical discourse in the United States. In addition to framing and positioning, the article examines how Soviet Constructivism (alongside Dadaism and Surrealism) becomes for October a key reference for rooting and evaluating the expanded, cross-genre art production post-1945 historically.

Pathology: A Diffractive Encounter of Machine/Body

I’ve been thinking about poems and about college as rhizomes (Deleuze and Guattari 1987), and as diffractive techniques (Barad 2007; Gullion 2018) for thinking about the social world. This project emerged as a way for me to understand my embodied experience of abdominal surgery. I began with the creation of an art journal, and then wrote a poem to accompany the images. I created the images and the text while thinking about my experience of undergoing surgery and diffracting that through Haraway’s (2016) ideas about cybernetics and machine bodies.