By NEIVANMADE, artist, Lviv, Ukraine
Today, I want to tell you about something special. It is about the thing people never cherish but still value more than all the treasures of this world combined. This thing is Freedom.
This artwork — “The Ark” — was made on the 1st of March. It was the first week of war unfolding. In awe and shock, the whole world was watching how Ukrainians opposed "The world's third army". No one believed in us then, but we've made it this far and still make it while we talk here. But back then, we had nothing to fend off Russian air raids, so their bombs were raining daily on peaceful Ukrainian towns. Homes, hospitals, and schools became the mass graves for thousands and thousands of ordinary people whose only guilt was being there. We were crying for help desperately, but the world's most powerful leaders were afraid to provoke Russia into more atrocities. But what was considered the atrocity worse than mass murders, rapes, and tortures of thousands of men, women, and children? Attacking an EU country, of course.
Crying for help, we knew we'd been left alone with sadistic maniacs. That's why the writing does not say "CLOSE the sky" but "HOLD the sky". This slogan originated in 2014 when the Revolution of Dignity was happening in Kyiv. When Russia-backed squads of police and paramilitary were shooting people in the streets, free people shouted these words when calling people to create barricades. To keep the sky from falling, to have the sun of Freedom back in the Ukrainian sky.
Our soldiers are protecting Ukrainian skies with their bodies, and many heroes fell on the battlefields. We need more weaponry; we need it really badly. Suppose some of you think that military support is unnecessary. In that case, you could try to fend off the bombings and nuclear terror with smiles and fairytales about world peace. The only thing you'll achieve this way will be making the Russians happy because they will conquer you without much effort.
But we stand. Stand like a portal of an ancient temple that leads into the new dawn. Suppose you'd ask me why I called this piece "The Ark". In that case, I'd tell you: these days in Ukraine, it does not matter who you are: left-wing, right-wing, atheist, Catholic, feminist, queer, socialist, conservative. We're all in this together, sailing through the storm of blood and fire on-board a modern Noah's Ark.
Image credit: The Ark, By NEIVENMADE, 2022
