Dear pandas, I would like to tell you a story about sunflower that grew up in the corridor of the Historical Museum.
Ukrainian artist Nina Ezhik moved from Kharkiv to the safer Dnipro on the seventh day of the war. At that time, only large supermarkets and pharmacies worked in the city.It was impossible to buy painting materials. So her friends brought her a roll of old wallpaper, nibbled on the edges by mice.
And Nina began to draw.
As she herself says
"The idea arose almost as I always have ideas for paintings - when I have already gone to bed at night, but I can't fall asleep for a long time.
The idea was show the unity of Ukrainians, which is symbolized by a huge sunflower, each seed of which is people hugging each other.
Seed-Breed-Family.
In the midst of the horror of war, I am in awe of how people are able to unite, show love and humanity. I am so grateful to everyone who finds the strength for love, support and help. The landscapes on the leaves appeared spontaneously, already in the process, and just showing the beauty, magic and diversity of our country."
On one of the leaf of sunflower Nina drew a landscape with Scythian menhirs near Izyum.
Our guardians of eternity.
One of this menhirs was already damaged by the russians: a piece broke off when they were tying their flag to the statue.
Nina finished this exquisite work in record time. She was inspired by the announcement of an exhibition in the Dmytro Yavornytskyi National Historical Museum called "Sketches in the Corridor". At the beginning of full-scale invasion all exhibition halls of the museum were closed, valuable exhibits were evacuated, and the museum itself turned into a humanitarian hub for helping displaced people. But the museum staff decided - whatever it takes- support and continue the cultural life of the city. Therefore, they decided to hold the exhibition in the safe corridors according to the rule of two walls (the first wall receives the impact of bombing, the other protects against shards).
This is how this sunflower blossomed in the corridor, becoming one of the main attractions of the exhibition. During the exhibition visitors donated to buy food for the animals, which, along with their owners, were forced to move to escape the war.
Currently, in Ukraine, any art in different ways unstoppable works for victory. Cultural life continues despite all attempts to intimidate us and destroy our cultural assets.
Moreover, it becomes more powerful the harder they try to destroy it.
