It is determined that modern culture is mainly focused on the visual. Since the last decades of the 20th century, a peculiar socio-cultural trend has been forming, which researchers define as the “pictorial turn” or visual turn. Its essential feature is that verbal means of communication give way to the visual. The significant influence of technical means on the perception and creation of art is emphasized. The processes that accompanied the emergence of photography and cinema have been developed in the further culture of the 20th century. Although the basic laws of creation of an artwork, the shaping tendencies and expressive means remained virtually unchanged, however, a lot of technical possibilities arose, which are being widely used. The growth of the value of the virtual network space on the physical reality is noted. The emergence of visual practices that perform a communicative function is highlighted. The network becomes a place of concentration of achievements of human creativity, reproducing actual requests, interests of recipients, providing not only an opportunity for self-expression, but also for receiving a quick reaction from another audience.

The main stages of Petro Rulin’s scientific biography are outlined, based on printed works and archival documents. Comparative analysis of methodological principles of Rulin and his teacher Vladimir Peretz as bright representatives of theatre study formation and development period was carried out, starting from the interdependence of their methods, biographies and social demand. General signs of scientists’ scientific activity (the desire to determine theoretical and methodological foundations of the theatre history study) were characterized. It is stated that the main methodological differences between Peretz and Rulin have not only individual, but also typological features. Differences in Peretz’s and Rulin’s scientific principles are attributed to various social circumstances in which the formation of researchers occurred, different models of scientific activity, and degree of inclusion in socio-political processes.

Peculiarities of the existence of a modern man in the world, densely packed with screens of different formats and functional purposes, are researched. Due to the multiplicity of devices surrounding a person in everyday life, the dialogue “person—screen” has turned into a polylogue, complicated by endless stratification of realities: landscapes of substantial reality and virtual worlds of computer “behind-the-screen”. Means of communication and coordination, ways of human interaction with numerous gadgets become important for perceiving the environment. Something like a computer interface or more complex—an interface menu that involves the implementation of a variety of action scenarios, the sequence of which is determined by the user according to the principle of zooming events of different distances in time and space. The article deals with the uniqueness of organization of screen chronotopes (cinema, television, electronic video, virtual reality of cyberspace); certain aspects of the daily use of the latest multimedia technologies are discussed; the influence of the on-screen culture expansion on the transformation of the general picture of the world is emphasized. The features of the leading strategies of interaction with the virtual reality of postmodern man are explored. The main ironic strategies are game, seduction, simulation. The sphere of the most complete realization of Homo Ludens in the computer’s “behind-the-screen” hyperreality is analyzed. In the ordinary existence, this is the space of computer games and the communicative space of social networks, where the crypt user, equipped with a virtue, can implement a variety of his alter-egos. Polylogue with a screen causes a fundamentally new way of communicating and broadcasting information, updating socioultural experience, transforming socially meaningful norms and standards.

Cultural and art study of the fine arts of Ukraine since the 1940s through 1960s would not be possible without detailed understanding of the key artistic terms and phenomena characteristics of society of that time. Among such terms and phenomena, the dominant method of the fine art of Soviet Ukraine, as a part of the USSR, is socialist realism. A new artistic method, realism of the socialist direction, was formed, reflecting the main task of being a mouthpiece in a class society. To do this, it was necessary to break the habitual stereotypes of artistic trends and revive in a single image of representation, where the style and method of the proposed creativity were united in a single direction. Technology that imposed an unnatural way of new artistic rules in the state was formed concurrently to the destruction of old foundations. The first and main change was the introduction of totalitarian artistic thinking in the psychology of a large number of state artists. The first steps in the victory of the new art were the struggle with the old world. In addition to the destruction of capitalism as a class, a version of the physical destruction of the old culture was proposed. Paradoxically, many artists liked this. Having considered such moods in the artistic environment, the state planned and, during the first years of the third decade, successfully carried out a ban on all art groups, unions and associations that existed in the state. The path to the creation of unified manageable unions of artists, writers, musicians, theaters, journalists, architects was open. The next largest term in the artistic life of the society of the period is the antipode of socialist realism, its opposition—non-conformism. This is the main dualistic opposition of the culture of the unfree society, which can be designated as “consent and disagreement”.

The originality of the individual style of Natalia Martyniuk, an artist, teacher of the Odessa Art College was investigated. The author identifies and studies the motives and images of woman, flowers and herbs, music, poetry, city, crystals. The improvisational nature of the creative process is considered. Artistic analysis shows the influence of decorative art on the large-scale stylization of easel graphics and painting. Artistic and stylistic analysis of compositions has been conducted. The structures based on the “lines of force” and the rhythms of the avant-garde of the early twentieth century were analyzed. The interrelation of Martynyuk’s creativity with the global artistic heritage has been shown. It is concluded that the poetic content of the works of the artist can be described as neo-romanticism and the form—as polystylism.

The book form and its place in the modern world from the point of view of the material embodiment are outlined. The review of various definitions of the concept “book” is presented. It is shown that at the moment there is no generally accepted definition of the book. Some definitions are very narrow, while others, on the contrary, interpret the book form too wide. The history of the appearance of the book as a flip through form is studied. The changes occurring in the principles of information perception in modern conditions against the background of the active development of electronic carriers are analyzed, the main causes of the book culture crisis are considered. The main problems, facing the book design in the present, are described; the main causes of the book culture crisis are identified. It is shown that in a modern consumer society a printed book often does not have an informational role, but, like in the Middle Ages, it is an indicator of an owner’s certain social status. Different variants of the evolutionary development of the book have been considered, the two main areas are distinguished. The first one is the synthesis of electronic and paper carriers through various mechanisms of augmented reality. The second one is underlining and exaggeration in the classical book of inherent qualities only, which cannot be simulated on electronic devices, such as scrolled form, evolving in space and time, tactility, physical boundaries, etc.

Ukrainian initiatives developing VR and 360-degree video interactive filmmaking are researched: Sensorama, VR First, based in UNIT.city, a brand new tech park in Kyiv, and MMOne in Odesa that has created the world’s first three-axis virtual reality simulator-chair, responding to the video game. An overview of Sensorama activities is given. The company grows VR/AR ecosystem in Ukraine by supporting talents with infrastructure, education, mentorship, investments, community events, Kaleido VR Festival, X Reality Hackathon, artistic AI, real-time VR ART performances, immersive theater development. The second part of the article is dedicated to the analysis of Ukrainian VR/AR art practices, asking, can we make virtual reality a “thoughtful place”, a place for questioning, sharing context for critical approach? Among the examples is an interactive documentary “Chornobyl 360”, created by the founders of Sensorama Lab, filmed in spherical view of 360 degrees about Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, which was the site of Chernobyl disaster in 1986, and now proven to be in demand on the global market, as well as “Wounds360” and “Shepherds”. The contexts, in which Ukrainian cases of art with VR/AR technologies and 360-degree video narratology exist today, are described, while XR technology offers a strong perspective to Ukrainian creative sector. It is found out that lack of the collaborative involvemet and of the international institutional connections are the reasons of invisibility of Ukrainian art with the use of technologies on the world art stage.

The ballet pieces of Manuel de Falla are chacterized in the paper due to their historical, style and genre manifestations. Ballet stagings of Manuel de Falla at the treatre stages of Europe are analyzed, composer’s and choreographers’ plans were determined, starting with the classical interpretation by Sergei Diaghilev. An outline of stage performances on Manuel de Falla’s music on the Ukrainian stages has been made. Directing and choreographical techniques of Ukrainian choreographers, particularly Aniko Rekhviashvili’s, have been revealed.

The article is an attempt to conduct a first synthetic art research study of the Teteriv cell. It highlights the history of the art studio in Teteriv, paying attention to the technology and techniques of wood products manufacturing. The artistic features of wooden products of the most famous masters of the cell are determined on the basis of art-study analysis. It was discovered that in the 1970s Teteriv Experimental and Productive Forestry enterprise was the leading enterprise in the production of souvenir and gift products, technology and decoration of which were based on local traditions of the artistic wood carving of Polissia. Experienced artist V. Parakhin along with young masters managed to revive and modernize forgotten fishing industry of artistic wood processing region, to create souvenirs, which combined the simplicity of aesthetics of production and functional usefulness.

The article studies private collectors’ impact on public cultural institutions. The research discovers historical evidence and reasons for the emergence of the collecting activity. It looks through evolution of the private collecting, the role of collectors in the founding and growth of public museums, from ancient civilizations up to the present. By means of historical analysis identified the progress of collecting activities, compared and revealed both different and similar features with museology phenomena. Vivid examples of collecting were found in all significant periods of human history. The results show active role of collectors in shaping consciousness of humankind, its social and cultural values, as well as close relationship of collectors with museums. The article is also focused on modern forms of interaction of collectors and cultural institutions. As such, expansion of institutional collections witnessed prolific and diverse cooperation with private collectors: from the philanthropy, sponsorship and patronage of museums, exhibitions, art fairs, commissioning of artists, to the transfer of personal acquisitions in favor of museums; or launching of the own cultural institutions, which later gain worldwide recognition. The article provides a number of examples and facts, which reflect the diversity of cooperation on the basis of collectables. It admits the role of private collectors in founding and developing of both national and global cultural institutions, and on the popularization of art in general.

The stylistic dynamics of formation and professional perfection of piano works by Transcarpathian composers of the 20th and early 21st century is studied against the background of stylistic processes of the entire 20th century. At the same time, the connection with the most important context—the classical (academic) experience, historically marked by certain style paradigms—is underlined. It has been established that such strategy was regionally specific, with the “will to style” causing the symbiosis of stylistic eide. In particular, it has been proved that original impulse for the formation of stylistic dominants of piano creativity by the Transcarpathian composers of the first half of the 20th through the beginning of the 21st century turned out to be modern styling, as well as the allusive way of developing a style with a tendency to romanticism.

The article raises the point of fate of a work of art in a totalitarian society. It deals with compositional and artistic qualities of the unique architectural ensemble—The Park of Memory in Kyiv—that was constructed in 1968–1982, and the significance of its main element—the Wall of Memory with its relief sculptures created by the artists A. Rybachuk and V. Melnychenko. The article substantiates the author’s point of view, concerning the fact that monumental stylistic uniqueness of the Wall of Memory in the context of the Park of Memory complex in Kyiv was that the Wall symbolized the commitment to freedom, tried to proclaim the value of each personality, which was a rebellious thought in the society, where it was normal to conform to the rules, whatever it takes. The author emphasizes the artistic characteristic features of the work by Ada Rybachuk and Volodymyr Melnychenko during the construction of the relief sculptures of the Wall of Memory.

The aim of the article is to clarify the attribution of the portrait of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna in her childhood by an outstanding Ukrainian artist Dmytro Levytsky. The issue of expert attribution of the work from the collection of the Kyiv Picture Gallery National Museum is specified. The creative manner of D. Levytsky has been analyzed, his technique of an artistic portraying of the person and his authorship has been proved. The emphasis was made on artist’s approach to plastic modeling, processing light, shadowing, coloring, and glazing. The change in the name of the portrait is justified, given the well-known iconography of the daughters of Paul I—the Grand Duchesses Alexandra, Elena, Maria and Catherine. Portrait images of the Romanov gallery, presented in Ukrainian art collections, now require a thorough study and refinement of attribution, since during the last 100 years they were on the periphery of domestic art studies. In this connection, the inheritance of the national artist Dmytro Levytsky, the son of the prominent Ukrainian engraver of the Baroque era, Grygory Levytsky-Nos, is especially important. A comprehensive analysis of the portrait of the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna from the Kyiv Picture Gallery National Museum confirms the affiliation of Dmitry Levytsky’s paintings.

The text is author’s commentary and analysis of painting and video works. The field of interest in these works is the problem of real existence and the possibility of art in this area. The problem of the relationship between art and religious consciousness was discussed. The text also expressed a skeptical attitude towards the idea of the autonomy of art. The artistic activities described indicate the importance of a belief in a partial immersion of man in a reality other than nature.

An attempt to outline the issues that the digital age poses to art studies has been made; upon completing his research journey, the author tries to solve the digital culture coordinates equation, its configuration and consumption formula, based on the author and someone else’s empirical observation of already partially digitized consciousness and inherent art consumption forms.

The article examines individual style and artistic language of the creative work by Anastasia Podervyanska, a bright representative of the creative generation of the 2000s. In particular, her experiments in the polystylistic series of works combining painting, applied art of embroidery, and collage have been studied. The author traces the consonance of power of themed figurative paintings by Anastasia Podervyanska and richness of film shots and collaged by Sergey Paradzhanov.

The article deals with the visual language, forms of expression, the themes of the works of the famous Ukrainian artist Oleg Tystol. He creates a special artistic space on the plane of the canvas, where the objects, signs and symbols depicted therein appear as elements of self-value artistic reality. By changing the visual language, the forms of visual expression, and the themes of creative research during his work, Oleg Tistol remains faithful to the “picture vision” that occupies a central place in his artistic activity. The national tradition and its modern rethinking remain the objects of the artist’s study. The new and “old” mythology of the Ukrainian history received its cultural reflection and was visualized anew in the works by Oleg Tystol—not in illustrative, but in analytic manner, through the post-Soviet reality and the search for national self-determination.

Artistic practices have now been dominated by an aesthetic regime that has revolutionarily transformed them, making works the result of free play - free from ethical meaning and the requirement to comply with rules - suspend the logic of perception. All norms and principles governing the production of performances, including the hierarchy of topics, have also been abolished. The images, which are subject to constant redistribution, have become part of this modified space of experience. We live in a world filled with images and understand this world through images. That is why defining the status of an image in contemporary culture, together with the dominant aesthetic strategies, may be the basis for understanding the processes taking place within it. The dynamics of technological development made visuality a prerequisite for the redefinition of the social world. Visibility is thus a political criterion, and thanks to new media the authorities can control and subjugate individuals more effectively.

During the ecological crisis, it is especially important to study the heritage of world art, which shows the harmonious connection between man and nature. The subject of our examination are the images and symbols of flowers in the masterpieces of the artist Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665). We study them in the context of the ancient heritage and culture of the 15th–17th centuries (poetry of Ovid, music, sculpture, theater, and ballet). Based on the ancient mythology of the masters of the Renaissance and Classicism in the paintings Primavera, The Empire of Flora gave their interpretation of the eternal theme of life and its cyclical renewal. The features of the artistic language of Poussin as the leader of classicism are shown. The mythological parallels of the image of Flora in the art of China are revealed.

The high rise of the Japanese theatrical engraving as a self-sufficient and independent art is observed in the 17th–19th centuries and has no analogies not only in the culture of other Eastern countries, but in the whole world culture in general. Extremely strong influence on the modern ecological poster had the work of Tusyushai Syaraku. The peculiarity of the artistic manner of Syaraku is that in his work he embraced almost the full spectrum of the theater performing staff, and not just the popular “stars”. The circle of characters in Syaraku is more complete and “democratic”, in comparison with other masters. Among the modern masters who were influenced by the work of Tosyushaya Syaraku, we note Takanokuro Yoshinori, Norizako Kita, Shuzo, Sato Koichi and many others. In their posters, masters use o-kubi-e techniques.

The high rise of the Japanese theatrical engraving as a self-sufficient and independent art is observed in the 17th–19th centuries and has no analogies not only in the culture of other Eastern countries, but in the whole world culture in general. Extremely strong influence on the modern ecological poster had the work of Tusyushai Syaraku. The peculiarity of the artistic manner of Syaraku is that in his work he embraced almost the full spectrum of the theater performing staff, and not just the popular “stars”. The circle of characters in Syaraku is more complete and “democratic”, in comparison with other masters. Among the modern masters who were influenced by the work of Tosyushaya Syaraku, we note Takanokuro Y

Collages by Sergey Paradzhanov may be characterized as one of the outstanding high points of his creativity, as a model of contemporary visual art practice of the time. It is underlined that collages turned out to be almost only way to experiment during his hard times. Compositional and stylistic features of Sergey Paradzhanov’s collages are revealed, as well as the principles of intertextuality, their assosiative nature, and “recursive reconstruction of elements”. It is pointed that in Paradzhanov’s collages “scantiness” of materials was compensated with the exquisite play with textures and visual interpretations (refined with subject-spatial combinations, sense and visual citations, which formed the basis of Paradzhanov’s“alphabet”). It is emphasized that the most important feature of his collages is forming the “meta-language of the visual” that opens the possibility for a dialogue with the parallel art spaces. Paradzhanov’s use of all possible means of the collage thinking caused him exceeding the limitations of a collage, allowing to synthesize traditional collage techniques with the elements of decollage, assemblage, and ready-made.

The article analyzes the condition of art and artistic creation in the context of the development of smart technologies and an advanced computer programs that are used more and more often today in the processes of producing object of art. The author wonders whether in the future the programs and algorithms will allow to cross the limit of seriality and repetitiveness, characteristic for machines’ works of art. The issues of defining art, its intentionality and originality are considered in the situation when the human subject does not stand behind the process of creating art objects. For better distinction, it is proposed to use categories of mass and autonomous art.

Specifics of the first lecture of the brilliant Ukrainian film director O. Dovzhenko, held in Kyiv State Institute of Cinematography, is researched and analized. The pedagogical activity of the Ukrainian director was investigated; the fact of inviting the artist to teach a group of students of the film institute was established; his first lecture at the Kyiv State Institute of Cinematography was reconstructed, based on the author’s findings: transcripts of the first lecture of O. Dovzhenko in the Kyiv State Institute of Cinematography in the main Ukrainian and Russian archives.

With the powerful development of the advanced technologies, art actively engages the innovation to create a new system of imagery. As a result, there appeared various contemporary forms of media art. The estimation of such experiments is constantly fluctuating from their radical condemnation as spheres of the functioning of the “simulacra” ( J. Baudrillard etc.) up to hope for them to overcome the existing barrier between the “culture of hearing” and “culture of vision”, which in media art reaches its equilibrium (M. McLuhan etc.) In our opinion, it makes sense to take a moderate stance on the question of contemporary technological innovations, avoiding both their absolutism and total criticism that borders with demonization, whereas any changes in the artistic realm have their causes; they are connected to the constant unstoppable socio-cultural movement. These processes reflect changes in the perception and value hierarchy of the modern personality, which, with the help of technological innovations, can reproduce high-minded meanings, as well as simulate the world of horrible and ugly, or reduce artistic works only to the level of entertainment. For example, using modern media technologies in contemporary Ukrainian art projects, we will try to carry out a philosophical and cultural analysis of the nature and specifics of the media’s use by Ukrainian artists in comparison with world trends in this area.

In this paper, the author attempts to synthesize his work in graphic arts. Based on selected examples, artist shows the transformations which the creation process was subjected to. Author notices the inherent potential of the matrix, the conventional process of acquiring a print, treated only as a means to create the art piece, that makes the basis around which he builds the meaning of his graphical objects. A significant aspect of the creative process is the method of using artistic creation tools, which are derived from the classical workshop and also are using the advantages of new technologies. Regardless of the means and tools used, the center of his practice is the matrix, which confirms the connection to reality – the symbolic relation of art and truth. The review of selected works, discussed in the article, concerns the period from 1993 to the present day.

In the text, I attempt to describe the essential concepts of visual culture, such as gesture, image and art, in their traditional and modern perspective. I point to the roots of the notion of the image, common to a wide range of cultures of the East and the Balkans and its connection with gesture, understood as a ritual gesture, shaping and modifying the understanding of the world. I am arguing that the gesture leading to the creation of an image that shapes the consciousness of both the creator and the recipient is a wounded gesture, because only such a gesture gives the created image the power to redefine the values. I illustrate this with a few spectacular examples from the history of 20th century art. In the face of such a gesture related to the analogue visual culture, I try to characterize what a digital gesture could be, a gesture of the virtual sphere. I also point changes in the authorship and participation in cultural communications of digitally overwritten culture.

The role of mythological component in modern Ukrainian chamber music is examined in the article. In the proposed musical examples we observe various embodiments of mythical and poetic component. In “Hoši‘ana” (Hosanna) — musicians who are not with us… by V. Runchak this feature is implemented through the innovative genre models of chamber music, and it is a direct indication to different actions of the musician to create in his interpretation the integrity of music canvas. However, the composer does not deny creative inclusion of the mythology in the program of his pilot plan that urge listeners to individually comprehend the author’s intention. We also must note the important meaning-creating function of the so called ritual paradigm, used by O. Bezborodko in KOMMOS, which also helps the public to decode the text. Without interpreting the complex system of relationships between the musical thinking and mythical and poetic (ritual) action, the composition loses its semantic multiplicity and ambiguity.

In the article, the author focuses on the ongoing crisis of postculture, which lasts since the last century, and on the risks of digital technologies’ influence on art. This latter process changes the very artistic consciousness, provoking its reduction while simultaneously paving the way for new, possible under the condition of transcendental freedom of artistic imagination, artistic experiments. Culture-industrial technologies of artistic being’s modernization are criticized as those, which reject the the aesthetic experience of the past, subordinating the creative work to the market strategies of the ideology of polyarchy. The research is grounded on a significant number of relevant approaches towards the theory and practice of contemporary culture.

The research focuses on the impact generated by civil society on the art processes taking place in totalitarian and post-totalitarian systems. The author states that social impact on creating or destructing of an artwork should be examined in detail. By the example of life story of the renowned Ukrainian monumental artists Ada Rybachuk and Volodymyr Melnychenko (ARVM—abbreviation for their initials) the author traces the development of state apparatus’ intervention into the individual creative work of the artists. The proposed conclusions prove the fact that under the circumstances of totalitarian arbitrariness civil society does not play a leading role. The paper tells the tragic fate of the unique work of art—The Wall of Memory—constructed during 1968–1982 at the Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv. In 1982 the artwork was poured over with concrete. In 2018, following the intervention of civil society, 10 m2 of the artwork were uncovered.

The article considers the processes that took place in Chinese oil painting under the influence of European traditions, which were brought to the territory of China due to the fact that Chinese artists of the twentieth century no longer wanted to remain limited to the ancient painting: they went abroad to study new techniques of painting and sought new creative ways. After students returned to their homeland, they distributed new ideas, new methods they had mastered during the studies, which led to the emergence and development of unique stylistic features of Chinese painting. It is pointed out that of the significant influence on the formation of the academic school, which was based on realistic style, were both the penetration of Western culture in the first half of the century and the introduction of the traditions of socialist realism from the USSR after 1949, which eventually gave way to the influences of other European styles on the art of China.

The artworks by Andriy Yermolenko, extraordinary and exciting artist and designer who makes famous political posters and images in Ukraine, are researched in the article. The author analyzes visual methods that the artist uses to influence the audience. These methods change from simple illustrations of reality to deep associative and philosophical contents. The research focuses on the series of posters dedicated to the FIFA World cup 2018 in Russia. In these series, the artist creates approximately seventeen images that urge to boycott the event. He chooses political topics that demonstrate the aggressive behavior of Russia around the world, proving this policy to be a reason for the boycott. The article explores essential and unique features in Yermolenko’s posters. These are absence of protesting texts, overwhelming silhouettes, and use of traditional symbols that usually associate with favorite political and sports topics. Other poster series of Andriy Yermolenko are briefly described. The article gives a brief outline of phenomenon of Ukrainian political poster (in the context of Yermolenko’s creativity) compared with general meanings of identity in contemporary Ukrainian art. Necessity for future cultural and art studies of the political poster as the unique contemporary art form is underlined.

The artworks by Andriy Yermolenko, extraordinary and exciting artist and designer who makes famous political posters and images in Ukraine, are researched in the article. The author analyzes visual methods that the artist uses to influence the audience. These methods change from simple illustrations of reality to deep associative and philosophical contents. The research focuses on the series of posters dedicated to the FIFA World cup 2018 in Russia. In these series, the artist creates approximately seventeen images that urge to boycott the event. He chooses political topics that demonstrate the aggressive behavior of Russia around the world, proving this policy to be a reason for the boycott. The article explores essential and unique features in Yermolenko’s posters. These are absence of protesting texts, overwhelming silhouettes, and use of traditional symbols that usually associate with favorite political and sports topics. Other poster series of Andriy Yermolenko are briefly described. The article gives a brief outline of phenomenon of Ukrainian political poster (in the context of Yermolenko’s creativity) compared with general meanings of identity in contemporary Ukrainian art. Necessity for future cultural and art studies of the political poster as the unique contemporary art form is underlined.

The article actualizes the problem of contemporary visual and information culture, of visual language, and of discourse as a methodological approach, which is applied for the analysis of modern communicative practices of social reality. Concepts of “visual”, “information”, and “media” are defined. The interaction and differences between the notions of information and media cultures, based on semiotic and hermeneutic methods of researching the discursive field of visual culture, are analyzed.

In the proposed publication the processes of restoring the historical consciousness of the nation in the context of social and cultural changes of the 1990s-2000s study are researched, as well as the reception of Ukrainian historical memory in contemporary monumental creations. It is emphasized that processes of transformation of historical memory and its visualization are not parallel and synchronous, and as historical memory is formed and modified simultaneously with the evolution of plastic art, the monumental sculpture becomes an active participant in the mythologization of the historical past.

As it was expected in the middle of the past century, digital and video technologies have fully penetrated the body of the modern theatre. Today using video serves a common director’s method, both banally illustrative and conceptual, to stage many plays. With a wide spectrum of digital technologies in use by the theatre where actors are alive, questions arise to the co-existence and to the balance between living creatures and digital videos in the same space, to their interaction and conceptual directions.

The term “simulacrum” is known back from the Latin translations of Plato, where it denoted simply an image, a picture, a representation. That was so until Jean Baudrillard reshaped the meaning of the concept. At the present time, simulacrum is one of the fundamental concepts within the theory of postmodernism. Its notion includes a pseudo-thing, an empty form, a copy lacking the original. In the contemporary world, with its technological overload, substituting reality with fake became quite common (in fashion, politics, advertising, entertainment industry, etc.). Culture has a vivid tendency for simulations. First and foremost, the article focuses, among all other categories of simulacra, on the digital video—digitograph—a field of stereotypes’ rupture that is the most convincing embodiment of the “photographically realistic” virtual inventions. It defines the new type of credibility, immanent to the process of perceiving on-screen illusions that changes the psychology of a contemporary man.

Phenomenon of plasticity is studied in the context of archaization of modern culture and emergence of nonrepresentational theories in visual research, associated with the “disappearance of the distance” and attention to the body and dynamic characteristics of space. Immersion of the eye into environment actualizes the practice of “womb” vision, which is present in plastic thinking, overcoming the division into “external–internal”, and forms a specific mode of transition from a representative model to an expressive one. In artistic practices of the 20th–21st centuries this coincides with experiments in search of effects of non-Euclidean geometry in pictures, large-scale gradations of palimpsests, reproduction of the atmosphere, numinous effects of modernized archetypes, and media mimicry.