Public Art of a Reminder

The book is dedicated to analyze of nonpolitical aspects of the social memory actualization, the role of contemporary art in particular. It is used a notion of Public Art. Based on it is proposed a new one “public art of reminder,” which is approached to actualize social memory in the urban space by means of activation people's mnemonic and creative abilities. Our empirical analyze consists in the exploration of the actual artistic projects and works of “public art of a reminder” in the Ukrainian and Russian urban spaces in general and Kharkiv one's in particular. It was carried out search, filtration, classification and critical analyze of artifacts. In addition, it was conducted the interviews with experts: people who played the role at the initiation or production of public art of a reminder in the city of Kharkiv. The results of the research include a new sociological data about character of public sphere occurred by public art works in post-Soviet cities; a level and forms of artists' activity concerning actual social problems and meaning; a way of actualization of communities' social memory and identity.