In a firm grip of memory

Genuine family relics and painted photographs, fragments of the now inaccessible dwellings, and even a Crimean pebble beach – you can see all this as part of the project “Reconstruction of Memory.” More than 10 Crimea and Donbas artists, who had to leave their homes recently, took part in the exhibit.

STROLLING ACROSS DONETSK AIRPORT

Architect and graphic designer Viktor Korvik took part in building Donetsk Sergey Prokofiev International Airport, now utterly ruined by war. Viktor worked on the general plan – to be more exact, he dealt with airfield beautification.

A lot of people always cluster in front of Korvik’s work “Airport.” For this object enables everybody to visit Donetsk airport – still intact, clean, and hospitable. “Airport” is a promo video of a new 2012 terminal, accompanied by Prokofiev’s romance from the film Lieutenant Kije. The terminal’s clip is a 3D videoed model of the airport, so the viewer seems to be traveling through the structure and watching the space from all angles.

“I’d been long thinking what to say about the airport. This resulted in a box with a telephone inside, which relays a video from YouTube. You can look around on the move,” Korvik says. “There is nothing concrete about the war here – just the things I dealt with for a long time, a year. I can’t say that doing this work aroused any special sentiments in me. What is really making an impression is a set of the photographs of what is going on at Donetsk airport now.”

“OCCUPIED” MEMORIES

Artist Andrii Dostliev, one of the “Reconstruction of Memory” curators, hit upon the idea of an exhibit as far back as May 2014. First he drew up a project of his own and then decided to involve other artists from the occupied territories. “Most of the artists and I first discussed at length what had happened and sought a theme that would be interesting to them and, at the same time, fit in with our concept,” Dostliev says. “It was difficult to draw personal memories out of oneself, but such things must be said.”

Andrii himself, born in Brianka, Luhansk oblast, put forward the project “Occupation.” The artist’s family photo archive remained behind in the DNR-controlled Donetsk and may disappear forever. Dostliev “occupies” other people’s memories the way it was done with his own ones. The artist finds pictures in various places, for example, at flea-markets, paints them over and sews them on to all kinds of characters in order to reproduce a story from his own life.

It is planned to show the project “Reconstruction of Memory” abroad – agreements have already been reached with Poland and Germany. In Ukraine, this exhibit can be seen on the premises of the IZOLYATSIA Foundation in Kyiv until March 4.