Art against war

New Gazeta Europe, together with experts, chose the main anti -war songs, films, books, games, installations and performances

Two years after the start of the full -scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine, it seems that the war begins to turn into an inevitable background. It is increasingly difficult to imagine and recall the time when the phrases “War with Ukraine”, “Tanks for Kyiv”, “Mobilization”, “missile shelling”, “Airy anxiety” themselves seemed either paranoia, or speculation, or nightmares. Terrible news comes every day: not only about the war itself, but also about its inevitable companions. Repressions. Murders of civilians. Murders of opposition. Prison dates. Personal tragedies. Universal bitterness. Other wars - in the Middle East, in Latin America, in Africa. Threatening ghosts of new conflicts.

When terrible news comes every day, you will inevitably adapt to them. But you can’t get used to them.

The site of the special project
[** Art against war. More than 250 songs, games,

films, books and paintings **] (https://antiwar-art.novayagazeta.eu/)

It is common that “war is a normal state of human society”, which means that nothing can be done with it, it has always been, is and will be in our history, and it remains only to come to terms and accept it for granted - as a constant unchanged background - sounds more and more often. But the frequent repetition of this thesis does not make it true.

With a temptation, we live in the face of war throughout our history. And all the time, how much this temptation exists, they fought with it. Artists, writers, composers, actors, later filmmakers, even later gamedemers - has been exploring the war for thousands of years using a variety of optics. War as a personal tragedy. War as a global phenomenon. War as a crime. War as inevitability. War as an accident. War as a non-Norm.

For this project, we, with the help of experts from various fields, compiled lists of the most striking works of anti -war art. We tried to include both the most famous and the most unusual, non -standard works from different areas at the same time: music, literature, cinema, games and visual arts. These are the works that convey and show us the ultimate human experience - clashes with the war. But these are those works that may be able to force those who heroize the war. And again to feel aversion to her - for those who are used to war. People are able to change their opinion: and sometimes art with respect works better than dry documentary reality.