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Installation from metal road signs, 2022

On 24th of February Russia started the full-scale war against my home country Ukraine. Millions of people including myself were forced to leave their homes. Driving away by car the last thing that they see before they leave their home city, town or village – are the road signs «You are now leaving...» – in Ukraine they are white metal boards with black alignment that have a black location’s name crossed out by the bold red line. In my work these signs symbolise hundreds of cities, towns and villages – Kharkiv, Mariupol, Izium, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Kramatorsk, Severodonetsk, Volnovakha, Energodar, Sloviansk, Rubizhne, Donetsk, Luhansk, and many many more – that Ukrainians had to leave without any clue when they would be able to come back – and if they would be able to come back at all.

At the same time, the signs with the red crossing line are about the very tragedy of «deletion» of these cities, towns and villages, their brutal destruction, wiping out and erasing that Russian troops are doing every day for more than 9 months already (as of December 2022). The installation is made in such a form that it reminds the traditional Ukrainian cemetery where the road signs represent the grave crosses.

The installation was created exclusively for Changwon Sculpture Biennale 2022 (Changwon, South Korea) – link. As of today, the artwork is a part of Jeonbuk Province Art Museum collection – link.