Roland Bonnin
Esther Bol, Playwright of Urgency :
Fight against Kremlin’s Propaganda through Writing and Exile
The full-scale invasion of Ukraine has placed Russian artists in a profound moral dilemma : remain neutral at risk of complicity or oppose it directly at risk of severe state reprisals. This dilemma can profoundly impact their works and the evolution of art itself.
Esther Bol (formerly Assia Volochina), driven by the war towards an identity and formal rupture, is a fine example of this crisis. This analysis traces her pre-war trajectory and position within the Russian artistic context before examining her response to the invasion through her play Crime #AlwaysArmUkraine. It dissects the elements of her literary metamorphosis, placing it in perspective with Sarah Kane’s Blasted. This process leads Esther Bol to reclaim tragedy via “screen prose” – a digital form – and to reaffirm the artistʹs duty of engagement in contemporary crises through a stance of active literary resistance to horror.
Olivier Ferrando
Russia’s Artists in Central Asia
Between Temporary Residency and Local Integration
Since the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have become havens for Russian artists. This ethnographic research explores how the migratory experience redefines their artistic practices through two models. The first is defined as a temporary residency, in which artists view their stay as a transitional phase during which they create performances conceived in Russia. Their work prioritizes the Russian language and universal or metaphorical themes, without genuine interaction with the local culture. This stance reflects a form of coloniality, where Russian language and culture maintain a dominant position over Central Asian societies. Conversely, the model of local integration applies to artists who seek to become part of the cultural life of their host country. By including local cultural practices into their projects, embracing topics that resonate with the host society, and collaborating with local actors, these Russians are opening themselves up to an artistic interaction that seems to transform the migratory experience into a space of resilience.
Sonia Gavory
Dakh Daughters at the National Drama Centre of Normandy–Vire : Rebuilding Community through Art after Invasion of Ukraine
This article examines the collaborations between the Ukrainian group Dakh Daughters and theatre director Lucie Berelowitsch at le Préau, the National Drama Centre of Normandy–Vire, between 2022 and 2025, in the context of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Focusing on three productions — The Mountain Giants (2023), The Forest Song (2025), and The Night in the Forests of Ukraine (2025) — it shows how le Préau became a space of refuge and artistic creation, fostering cultural exchanges between Ukrainian artists, the theatre’s ensemble, and local audiences in Normandy. The article also addresses the difficulties related to exile and to learning the language of the host country, as thematised in these works. More than a shelter, le Préau represented an opening onto Europe for the Dakh Daughters and enabled them to make their struggle for Ukraine heard. Ultimately, these collaborations contributed to rebuilding a sense of community through art in times of war, beyond the fleeting visibility of Ukrainian theatre in France.
Antoine Nicolle
« Wake Us Up When February Ends » (Noize MC & Monetochka) :
Self-Care Between Escapism and Resistant Ethics
in Post–February Russian Émigré Song
Through an analysis of two Russian songs composed in exile at the end of 2022—The Land of Rains by Noize MC and Cryogenic Chambers by Noize MC and Monetotchka—the article examines the theme of exile and flight, not only from Russia but also from reality itself, understood as a site of ethical and political debate within contemporary dissent. It highlights the process by which a particular contemporary Russian oppositional ethic is legitimized—one that, in contrast to the heroic-sacrificial dissident tradition, grants legitimacy to self-care while carefully distinguishing it from selfish, responsibility-evading escapism.
Liudmila Oshchepkova
Multimodal Strategies and Intertextuality in the Anti-War Discourse
of Russian Artists and their Effects on the Audience
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, many Russian artists have used Instagram to express their opposition to the conflict, mobilizing various discursive strategies : explicit protest, reflections on the ethical role of art and its actors in times of war, and the creation of anti-militarist songs as a form of creative protest. Cultural intertextuality plays a key role in these publications : quotations from classical literature, excerpts from Soviet films, and popular songs help activate collective memory. The use of multimodal devices combining textual, visual, and audio resources increases the impact on the audience and provokes strong reactions in the form of comments. These comments form a polyphonic field of evaluations, ranging from support to rejection, and employ various linguistic means : graphic, morphemic, lexical, phraseological, and syntactic. This study analyzes both the forms of anti-war protest expressed by the artists and the mechanisms of social evaluation of these positions in Instagram comments.
Kateryna Tarasiuk
Trajectories of Ukrainian Refugee Artists : Uprooting and Re-rooting,
the “In-Between” Condition and Transcultural Identities
This article explores the trajectories of Ukrainian artists who left their country following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The study draws on individual interviews with four contemporary Ukrainian artists – Kateryna Lysovenko, Anna Chtcherbina, Iulia Kafìzova and Anatoli Belov – and explores how war-related displacement reshapes their artistic practices, professional paths, and cultural identities.The article adopts a postcolonial and decolonial perspective and highlights migration trajectories that are often non-linear, shaped by spaces of transit – particularly Berlin – as well as by processes of identity reconstruction and the artistic shaping of trauma. The experiences of the interviewed artists suggest that, despite the material and psychological challenges associated with forced displacement, this situation has also created new opportunities for artistic experimentation and has increased the international visibility of their work. Their practices reflect the emergence of plural, nomadic, and transcultural identities situated within an « in-between » space in which artistic subjectivities are continuously renegotiated.
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