Before The War Began

This sculpture is one of two last artworks I made before russia started the war against my country. I painted the colored circles on a pre-existing soviet-era porcelain bust of Lenin which I found at a flea market. As a result of this artistic gesture, I erase the propaganda and ideological meanings of the object while endowing it with decorative qualities. For many Ukrainians who, like me, share Western values, Lenin is a dictator and murderer who initiated an occupation of my country in 1917-1921. From that time until 1991, Ukraine wasn't free. Even now, like numerous old soviet-era propagandistic images of Lenin, the ghost of a monster country called the USSR is still here. Lenin's successor from the Kremlin tries to destroy an independent Ukraine and pull it into Moscow's deadly hug. In my art project, I try to overcome the traumatic historical experience of my country by transforming the sinister shards of the USSR into something funny and not scary. I try to show that we can defeat even the strongest evil. But even in a case of a win, we must be alert to prevent the enemy from rising again.