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When the war hit Kharkiv in 2022, the urban space transformed at a scale impossible for its inhabitants and artistic community to process. As it turns out, the urban space of Kharkiv was difficult to process long before the impact of drones and missiles. Kharkiv has been transforming for centuries, collecting monuments and memories from the ebbs and flows of history. The authors zoom in on three events over the past decade that reflect how different actors used the cityscape of Kharkiv to make sense of and shape their context: Architect and visual artist Vasylysa Shchogoleva explores the urban space of Kharkiv in 2023 as a place of healing and compassion. Cultural anthropologist Viktoriia Grivina takes us back to 2018 when a piece of street art on a wall became the epicenter of a community conflict. Anthropologist Hjørdis Clemmensen opens a window to the workshop of a group of architecture students in 2013 who wished to not only influence the space around them but also time itself.
Report
"The story of Ukraine cannot be told without many, many chapters dedicated to the vibrant city of Kharkiv. This modern metropolis has long been a cultural powerhouse, producing some of the country's most influential artistic, scientific, academic, and political contributions. This remarkable book is a welcome addition to English-language literature, which has rarely turned its full and undivided attention to Ukraine's "eastern capital" as these three authors do. And how grateful we are that they did, for only such an interdisciplinary approach as this can do justice to a city that has, in the last decade, been completely transformed by globalization, revolution, and war, all while remaining true to itself-and remaining truly Kharkiv. In this current political moment, when Russia's war in Ukraine forces us to reconsider what we think we know about this region, Clemmensen, Grivina, and Shchogoleva offer new and necessary insights for anyone who seeks to understand the past, present, and future of Ukraine." -Jennifer J. Carroll, Associate Professor of Anthropology, North Carolina State University
