Overcoming the war

A mural done by the famous French artist Julien Malland was unveiled recently in Popasna on the premises of Popasna Secondary School No. 1, supported by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF)’s Ukrainian office. The event was reported, among other sources, by the press service of the Popasna City Council. The mural’s unveiling is part of UNICEF’s project “Tolerance Education and Reconstruction through the Arts.”

Malland did not just create the mural, but also involved children in painting on the walls of the school and held a master class for students. The work on the mural took a week. The unveiling ceremony was attended by deputy mayor Iryna Hapotchenko, head of the Popasna Raion Military-Civil Administration Serhii Shakun, head of the administration’s education department Maryna Dontsova, director of Popasna Secondary School No. 1 Viktor Shulik, its students and their parents.

It is important to note that the school is literally facing the enemy. You can see “scars” on its walls where shells hit. Shelling danger remains to this day. Den talked to Hanna Stepanova, who has just graduated from the school, as recently as this winter (the interview was published on February 24, 2017). The girl who had witnessed war at this young age used that occasion to share her already adult-like thoughts on fear, her own plans, and Ukraine. Her house is located next to the school. For her, the mural is more than just a set of meaningful images. She sees it as a kind of talisman. Stepanova hopes that Russian thugs and their mercenaries will not dare to shoot at children again.

“In fact, we are very pleased that Paris-based artist Julien Malland arrived in our small town,” schoolgirl Stepanova told The Day. “He stayed in Popasna for five days and painted four paintings during that time. However, it was A Popasna Swing, his first work and, in my opinion, the most symbolic one, that made the strongest impression on me. I walked past the school building every night in the company of my mother to see what Malland had painted in a day. We felt incredibly interested. On the fourth day of Malland’s effort, we saw the completed mural. It showed a girl riding a swing without fear. She looks at the sky and enjoys a peaceful childhood. I started hoping that the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR)’s soldiers would see it and understand its meaning. They will definitely see it, because my school is visible from the occupied Stakhanov. By the way, the wall on which the mural was painted had already been damaged by an enemy shell in 2014. I believe that the LNR will be unable to direct their weapons against the city and my school anymore, because they will look at the peaceful sky and the child.”

Stepanova continued: “Through the work of Malland, a regular white-brick wall has come alive, and a tired passerby going home at night after a workday will look at this painting and smile. Malland instills a love for beauty in children as well, and he has discovered our talents. We painted our little murals on another wall of the school. It was more of a psychological relaxation session than a master class. Children should have fun and stay children, and not just live amid fear and stress and talk about shelling. Painting these pictures brought us together since it involved high school seniors and elementary schoolchildren alike. I am completing Grade 11 this year, and I painted with Masha who attends Grade 3. It was fun when I was painting, because being allowed to paint over the school’s walls is a rare occasion. I felt easier because I was picturing my dream, which is peaceful life, and hoped to get it happening, but I was at the same time sad because I painted this picture as a high school senior who had to leave the school and enter adulthood soon. More than anyone else, I am finding it hard to say goodbye to the school again, because I left it during the fighting of 2014. During my two-year separation from the hometown, I wanted to go back to my school more than anything else. My childhood and memories of the once peaceful life are all here. But since time goes on, I am now a graduate who dreams of entering university and coming to Popasna in a year to see the peaceful sky existing not only on the French artist’s mural.”

“The city suffered most from enemy artillery in 2014 and 2015, now it is mostly army positions and outskirts which get shelled, although it varies,” Stepanova recalled recent past. “My school had 11 shells landing nearby in 2014. They did a lot of damage: huge craters, mutilated trees, almost all windows broken, and a shell stuck straight in the wall which is now covered with the mural. We live in danger today not only because of shells that may arrive from the occupied Pervomaisk or Stakhanov, but because of the unexploded shells buried underground. In the fall of 2016, sappers removed the Grad missile which hit my school’s soccer field in 2014. As long as it was in the ground, children played soccer there, not realizing that they stumbled on the missile sometimes.

“Another interesting story happened this winter when our school held a charity event called ‘22 Ribbons To Protect Our Soldiers.’ Everyone could hang ropes on a camouflage net for soldiers on any day, but the most interesting thing is that as we wove it, we saw the occupied Stakhanov in our windows. We walk through the corridors of the school daily and see Stakhanov, its buildings, the coal mine, and the firing position used to shoot at Popasna and Ukrainian soldiers at night. We understand that they see our homes just as clearly, and when assisted by binoculars, they can even make out our faces. I cannot understand how they can shoot all the while. Some ‘separatists’ were Popasna residents in the past, and I ask myself, how can they shoot at their own homes?”

It is interesting to note that as soon as Malland’s mural was unveiled, some Russian internet communities reported that this work of art was located in a Russian city. It prompted a justly severe response on social networks, with users pointing out that Russia could not stop its robbery of other people’s property, ideas, and history.