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EXPRESSIONISM VS DADAISM: TWO IMAGES OF THE EXISTENTIAL TRAGEDY OF THE EARLY XX CENTURY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2015. Issue 1 (3). P. 84-90

2014 is the centenary anniversary of the First world war, The Great War, La Grand guerre. It was a war ruined not only the bodies but also the minds of Europeans. Art is an area of culture that is most keenly anticipates and reflects all civilizational changes. On the events of the First world war it responded through the avant-garde. Among the range of avant-garde trends were two (expressionism and dadaism) that are stronger then others reacted on existential component of the processes. The purpose of this paper is to show two avant-garde experience of the early twentieth century (expressionism and dadaism) as two types of reactions to cultural consciousness on the existential crippling events of war. According to the author the response of these art movements were diametrically opposed – the tragic fight with reality by Expressionism and escapism and denial of reality by Dada.

Keywords: Expressionism, Dadaism, World War I

SCHIZOPHRENICS’ DRAWINGS INTERPRETATION: MULTIDISCIPLINARY ASPECTS OF THE STUDY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 4 (10). P. 109-124

Schizophrenia, which Deleuze and Guattari described as “the disease of century”, still strongly reinforces its position according to the WHO. Since 2000, the number of ‘schizophrenia’ diagnoses has increased by 40 %. The disease manifestations polymorphism is one of the main differential diagnostic problems. The lack of schizophrenia nosological unity is closely connected with the old question of the disease ‘essence’. However, attempts to build some kind of a correct recognition and interpretation of this mental disorder type still have not given results. Due to the fact that most doctors consider schizophrenia not as a single disease, and as a group of psychoses, with a similar picture of the flow, the diagnosis F20 (schizophrenia) is made on set of the disease most malignant manifestations. Art therapy is widely used in the patients rehabilitation practice; it gives a variety of artistic material for analysis of the schizophrenia signs, ‘language’ and ‘discourse’. The schizophrenic often substitutes one language for another – verbal language for the drawing language. The conceptual basis of this researching is the Timothy Crow (English psychiatrist) hypothesis, that schizophrenia is a language disease. The article identifies correlation between sign (drawing) and symptom (the signified). The surrealism art practices are interpreted in this researching as surrealism declares insanity as an artistic reality. Through using examples of Tomsk Clinical Psychiatric Hospital patient drawings, the insanes and the surrealists creativity comparative analysis is made in the article.

Keywords: schizophrenia, psychoanalysis, Lacan, surrealism, drawing, interpretation