THE AESTHETICIZATION OF WAR INFRASTRUCTURE : TAPED WINDOWS AND ANTI-TANK HEDGEHOGS IN UKRAINIAN ART AND DESIGN

Abstract

This article analyses the aestheticization of war infrastructure objects – taped windows and anti-tank hedgehogs – in Ukrainian art and design between 2014 and 2026. The study draws on theoretical frameworks including thing theory (B. Brown), new materialism (J. Bennett), the cultural biography of things (I. Kopytoff), the sociology of cultural production (P. Bourdieu), as well as concepts of the aestheticization of politics (W. Benjamin) and affect theory. The article traces the transformation of these objects from functional elements of protection into visual signs circulating across artistic practices, graphic design, and commercial contexts. Particular attention is given to humour as a mechanism of affective normalization of wartime experience and to materiality as a carrier of memory and testimony. The analysis demonstrates that aestheticization performs multiple and sometimes contradictory functions – including critical reflection, commodification, and psychological adaptation – and cannot be reduced to a single meaning. The Ukrainian case, where war is an immediate lived reality rather than a distant spectacle, challenges established Western theoretical models and calls for their reconsideration.