{"id":1250,"date":"2023-04-03T10:07:41","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T09:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/international-programmes\/?p=1250"},"modified":"2024-10-29T10:26:49","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T10:26:49","slug":"art-against-war-exhibition-at-kent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-learning\/2023\/04\/03\/art-against-war-exhibition-at-kent\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Art Against War&#8221; Exhibition at Kent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The exhibition explores lived experiences of the ongoing war in Ukraine. It is part of an educational and cultural project facilitated by KSU\u2019s Faculty of Culture and Arts, which won a national competition in 2017 for a study on art and anti-war protest.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kspu.edu\/default.aspx?lang=en\">Kherson State University<\/a> (KSU), which is in southern Ukraine, was twinned with University of Kent on Tuesday 28 June 2022 as part of a five-year initiative backed by the UK government, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.universitiesuk.ac.uk\/\">Universities UK<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consultcormack.com\/company-history\">Cormack Consultancy Group<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Over 70 UK universities have similar twinning relationships with Ukrainian universities, promoting resource sharing, cultural exchange, support and solidarity with institutions which have been affected by the ongoing conflict.<\/p>\n<p>Since the twinning, Kent has provided laptops to KSU as well as online English classes for students and guest lectures.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1255\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1255\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1255\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-learning\/files\/2023\/04\/20230330_165440.jpg\" alt=\"'It's dark all around, but we keep the light inside of us&quot; by Hurnyk Viktiriia \" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1255\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8216;It&#8217;s dark all around, but we keep the light inside of us&#8217; by Hurnyk Viktiriia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>KSU is a 105-year-old University in a territory that was occupied by Russian military forces early during the invasion. They have had to close their campus and move to Ivano-Frankivsk, a city in the West of Ukraine, 1,000 kilometres away.<\/p>\n<p>Though Russia withdrew from the city in November 2022, Vice Rector Tsapiv Alla Oleksiivna describes &#8211; in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.universitiesuk.ac.uk\/sites\/default\/files\/field\/downloads\/2023-02\/uuk-podcast-ukraine-transcript.pdf\">interview with Universities UK<\/a> &#8211;\u00a0how most of their equipment is destroyed or stolen and the city is still constantly under attack.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1256\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1256\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1256\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-learning\/files\/2023\/04\/20230330_165505.jpg\" alt=\"'The Blooming of War' by Hurnyk Viktiriia \" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1256\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8216;The Blooming of War&#8217; by Hurnyk Viktiriia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The art exhibition was launched at University of Kent on 30 March. To mark the opening, KSU staff presented their book, <em>Chronicles of a Displaced University, <\/em>which documents their thoughts and memories of their lives relocated in Ivano-Frankivsk.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1251\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-learning\/files\/2023\/04\/20230330_162823.jpg\" alt=\"Launch of Exhibition Art Against War by Kherson State University Students\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1253\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-learning\/files\/2023\/04\/20230330_163908.jpg\" alt=\"Launch of 'Art Against War' exhibition\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Our very own Global Officer Baba Ige, currently studying Law at Kent, said of the exhibition:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe art exhibition presented by the Ukraine students was a reminder of the devastating effects of war. The pieces on display were a mix of paintings\u00a0\u00a0and photographs that depicted the horrors of war and its impact on the lives of people.<\/p>\n<p>I was struck by the raw emotions that the artists had managed to capture through their art. Each piece conveyed a powerful message about the pain, suffering, and loss that people experience during times of conflict.<\/p>\n<p>One of the pieces that stood out to me was a painting of a young girl with a flower crown of blood. The artist had used bold strokes of color to convey the intensity of the girl&#8217;s emotions, and it was impossible not to feel moved by the painting.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1257\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1257\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1257\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-learning\/files\/2023\/04\/20230330_165517.jpg\" alt=\"Poppy by Anonymous\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1257\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8216;Poppy&#8217; by Anonymous<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Overall, the exhibition was a sobering reminder of the harsh realities of war. It made me realize that even though I may be far removed from the conflicts that are raging in different parts of the world, the impact of war is felt by people everywhere.<\/p>\n<p>The art pieces also highlighted the resilience of the human spirit, and the importance of hope and solidarity in times of crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The exhibition will be displayed in the University of Kent\u2019s Templeman Library Cafe Space until 13 April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The exhibition explores lived experiences of the ongoing war in Ukraine. It is part of an educational and cultural project facilitated by KSU\u2019s Faculty of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-learning\/2023\/04\/03\/art-against-war-exhibition-at-kent\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79191,"featured_media":1254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[215959,202858],"tags":[57936,215960,215964,112,118135,233],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1250"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1757,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250\/revisions\/1757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}