At the 15th International Conference on Culture & Creativity Dr. Giovanni Ercolani is willing to present his recent book The Maidan Museum: Preserving the Spirit of Maidan - Art, Identity, and the Revolution of Dignity which examines the relation between art created during the so-called Revolution of Dignity–Maidan Events (November 21, 2013 – February 23, 2014, Ukraine) and the mission of the Maidan Museum (Kyiv, Ukraine) born from the ashes of Euromaidan, to preserve the ‘Spirit of Maidan’.
The Maidan events, defined as the Maidanization process, produced a post-colonial discourse language, a new apolitical ideology based on the concepts of dignity and Ukrainianness; generated symbols, social myths, and collective imaginary; triggered the ‘Spirit of Maidan’ that changed the consciousness of the participants in the demonstrations; and functioned as a ritual of intensification-aggregation-initiation passage, in which the identity of new Ukraine was shaped.
In this transformative process, in which the human being is seen as an ‘animal identitarium’ struggling, defending, and fighting for his/her own identity, artists played a crucial role in assembling the main elements of the post-Maidan Ukrainian identity (homo Maidan), were able to empower the whole movement with concrete ideas, and finally reworked objects, symbols, and music already present in the Ukrainian DNA through a process of meaningization, symbolization, mythization, canonization, sacralization, and interpellation.
This volume is based on interviews with artists who dramatically participated in the Maidan events and fieldwork at the Maidan Museum, and unfolds and identifies the main elements, emotions, expectations, and motivations of the relation of art creation and Ukrainian post-Maidan identity formation based on the ‘Spirit of Maidan’.
About the authors: Giovanni Ercolani; Chris Farrands
Dr. Giovanni Ercolani studied Political Science, Oriental Studies, Art Management and Production, and was awarded a PhD in Social Anthropology with the University of Murcia (Spain) and a PhD in International Relations and Security Studies by the Nottingham Trent University (UK). He is both a Researcher at the ‘Society and Culture’ Research Group at the University of Murcia (Spain), and a Research Associate at ‘LADEC –Laboratoired’Anthropologie des EnjeuxContemporains’ at the Université Lumière Lyon 2 (France), while also an active Thesis Advisor for the ’Peace Operations Training Institute’ (USA). Previously, he was lecturer on ‘Global Terrorism’ and ‘Peacekeeping and Conflict Resolution’ at the Bilgi University and Yeditepe University in Istanbul (Turkey). Dr.Ercolani is member of the Editorial Board of ‘The Journal of Security Sciences’ (Turkey), and Fellow (elected) of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (UK); his previous books include the co-edited Anthropology and Security Studies (Editum 2013); his papers have been published by, among other outlets, the Central European Journal of International and Security Studies; and his multidisciplinary researches focus on the topics of culture, social myths, symbolism, collective imaginaries, identity, and security.
Dr. Chris Farrands studied International Relations and Philosophy at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth and the London School of Economics. He has taught at a number of UK and French Universities and has been a Visiting Professor in universities in Turkey and in Washington DC. He most recently worked as Head of the International Relations team at Nottingham Trent University. Now retired, he continues to publish research and supervise there. He has published widely, including around 100 published articles and papers and eleven edited, single or co-authored books. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
Ercolani, G. (2023). The Maidan Museum: Preserving the Spirit of Maidan - Art, Identity, and the Revolution of Dignity. Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag. ISBN-13: 978-3-8382-1763-5. At: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-maidan-museum-preserving-the-spirit-of-maidan/9783838217635
