Ukraine at war received three remarkable symbolic visits on Sunday: while the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, met the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the First Lady of the United States, Jill Biden, was received by her counterpart Ukrainian near the Slovak border, the two pillars of the Irish group U2, singer Bono and guitarist The Edge, offered a pocket concert in a metro station in the capital.
The rockers were also there at the official invitation of the Ukrainian government. This gives the measure of the importance of cultural commitment in the country attacked by Russia. In this field, as in many others, Ukraine continues to give lessons in communications, public relations and propaganda on a global scale.
The country’s Post Office even issued a one million stamp recalling the incident on Serpents’ Island when the soldiers of the Ukrainian garrison vulgarly replied to the enemy warship summoning them to surrender. the Moskvajewel of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was sunk two days after the commemorative postal art was issued.
“When a war mobilizes public opinion, artists often get involved. The war represents the great cause, justifies the great international mobilization. Artists then often feel morally obliged to intervene,” underlines Ève Lamoureux, professor in the Department of Art History at UQAM. His entire training was in political philosophy with a specialty in Bertolt Brecht’s committed theater and then a doctorate in the commitment of contemporary artists in the visual arts in Quebec.
Freedom and autonomy
From Zola to Banksy, the tutelary figures of political activism in the arts and letters are not lacking. Neither are the causes: from the environment to diversity and inclusion. The specialist distinguishes between artists hired by the state (for example, painters who have accompanied Canadian troops on missions since the First World War) or NGOs (for a fundraising campaign, for example) and artists who are freely involved in war period.
In Europe, the last major conflict, that of Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-1995), mobilized many creators. Director Jean-Luc Godard devoted three films to it, and directors François Tanguy, Ariane Mnouchkine and Olivier Py organized a hunger strike in August 1995 to implore Western intervention.
The people and the artistic personalities take up the torch with the new war which is tearing the Old Continent apart. Visits to the ravaged country or fundraising activities to help it have been counted in the hundreds, even thousands, for more than two months.
Actress Angelina Jolie stopped by Lviv last week. Comedian filmmaker Sean Penn made a documentary about the beginnings of the conflict. Ed Sheeran collaborated with the Ukrainian group Antytila for a new version of 2step promising to donate the profits from the sale of the song to organizations helping children in the country. Montreal, Sherbrooke and Quebec have organized solidarity artistic evenings in recent days.
“Artists claim a margin of autonomy with respect to articulated political discourse,” says Professor Lamoureux. Bono was not conscripted to follow warring troops for months. He gets involved for a given time and on his own terms. That said, taking up the cause against the war is not very risky. »
Pro-Putin artists
Little risky for a Westerner, of course. Russian artists show other scenarios. Some are openly displayed as hot zealots of “special military intervention”. The director of the Gnessin Academy, which trains young musical prodigies in Moscow, led his institution’s orchestra while wearing a black t-shirt marked with a white Z, a rallying symbol for the army of invasion. Former students and professors have responded with a letter denouncing this war propaganda, even though this opposition poses a real risk of imprisonment.
“There have been artists committed to fascism or communism,” continues Professor Lamoureux. Artistic engagement, like that of social movements, does not have a monopoly on the right line or the morally defensible line. Some involved art activists later regretted their position. »
Bono was not conscripted to follow warring troops for months. He gets involved for a given time and on his own terms. That said, taking up the cause against the war is not very risky.
No art seems to withdraw into Swiss neutrality. Pop music, theatre, cinema or literature give a lot in active militancy perhaps because they are creative disciplines linked to the word and populated by big stars. Mme Lamoureux has studied the visual arts well and can confirm that there are no fewer creators heavily involved in causes from Picasso to Ai Weiwei.
Two basic questions then remain. The first amounts to asking what good is it? What is the use of art in the service of a cause? “Some people believe that the power of art is a sensitive power that has nothing to do with political engagement,” replies the specialist. Other artists believe on the contrary that their commitment changes something, for example by mobilizing the troops. A fighter may feel energized hearing Bono sing. The support of artists also serves to justify a cause, to finance it and to put some balm on a horrible situation. »
The other question refers to the polarization of extremes in our societies. Part of the American conservative fringe constantly reproaches “Hollywood” for giving a leftist lesson and morality to the good people. Is this still the case when Sean Penn, Angelina Jolie or Bono go to Ukraine?
“I’ll say it again: taking a stand against war in our Western societies is not very risky morally or politically,” replies Ève Lamoureux, emphasizing the consensus against this destructive monstrosity of beings and things. It also recalls the diversity of causes embraced by stars, big and small, for example to defend Donald Trump. In the conflict in Ukraine, there is even at least one has-been Hollywood (Steven Seagal), from the ugly edge of the hatchet, alongside Vladimir Putin.