German troops enter Kharkiv in autumn 1941, 2022
Felt tip pens paper
“I saw a lot of historical parallels since the very start of the invasion. I went looking for images from World War two that correspond to 2022. Found a lot of right material, especially from Operation Barbarossa, when the German army entered Ukraine. Today, battlefields are the same only nazis are different. They come from Moscow. In one particular photograph with the caption: ‘’German troops enter Kharkiv in autumn 1941’’, Some giant Soviet-style building in the background of German soldiers didn’t look like it was from the 1940s, it looked way more modern. I did a little research and found out that it was the first constructivist skyscraper in the Soviet Union which was finished in 1928. The building was featured as a symbol of modernity in a legendary film by Dziga Vertov ‘’Man with a Movie Camera’’. When people talk about early Soviet art they always say ‘’Russian avant-garde’’, which to me sounds false. I think we should use the term ‘’Soviet avant-garde’’ which is broader because a lot of non-Russians and especially Ukrainians were the key participants of those movements. Then I knew that this is the historical parallel that I wanted to make visually – both about how the Russians steal foreign culture and use it as their own, and that at the time of drawing, Russian troops literally were on the outskirts of Kharkiv trying to enter it as the nazis did in 1941. About the series: As the year 2022 was the year of the war in Ukraine, the biggest full-scale war since world war two, I had real doubts about my usual artistic practice of oil painting. I suddenly felt that painting is of no use now because simple protest poster has more meaning now, and most importantly – more power.”
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