Art for the people at war
Svitlana Maternijuk (from left), Lyibov Bezkorovajna and Vasilij Priemskij are sitting in the staff room of a Ukrainian children’s home under an installation by the artist Aljoscha
Source: dpa/-
The Russian-Ukrainian artist Aljoscha traveled across Ukraine and distributed his colorful art objects in children’s and old people’s homes. He wants to bring hope with his art – but he is not welcomed with open arms everywhere.
AIjosha didn’t want to watch helplessly as his Ukrainian homeland was attacked by Russian troops. So the artist, who lives in Düsseldorf, got into the car with his wife Natascha and 24 filigree pink and yellow objects.
In the past few weeks, Aljoscha and Natascha have been driving from west to east through their common homeland, where they were born and where Russian troops marched in at the end of February. For Aljoscha it is an ambivalent journey: his father is Russian, his mother is Ukrainian. “I’m a convinced pacifist,” says the 47-year-old father. “And our project is called ‘Hope’.”
Aljoscha did not go to the places where rockets and bombs landed in Ukraine, but to places that are often out of the public eye, even in times of peace. This is where the artist, whose real name is Alexei Potupin, brought his crystalline spiked creatures made of wire and acrylic paint, which he calls “bioisms”.
The Russian-Ukrainian artist Aljoscha and his wife Natascha hang up one of his installations in an office in Kyiv
Source: dpa/-
Aljoscha transported his brightly colored objects to the most remote places near Vinnytsia, Odessa, Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Poltava. He hung them from the ceilings in nursing homes and boarding schools for children with disabilities, for ex-prisoners or for the elderly. Many homes had already been evacuated because of the war. The teachers and directors stayed behind. He concentrates on “the marginal phenomena of life, where people are forgotten and are still people,” says the artist.
Distrust of the surprise visitors
Aljoscha made his breakthrough as an artist in the West. With subversive humor, he initially placed his “bioisms” on squares, monuments and even in sausage counters. He now exhibits the abstract spiked objects in monumental size in the USA, Spain, Germany and other countries.
Vladimir Getmanchuk, director of a special school, sits in a washroom under an installation by the artist Aljoscha
Source: dpa/-
Can art contribute to solving the conflict? “Probably not,” says Aljoscha. “But right now, in these incredibly difficult times, where mistrust prevails instead of friendliness, hate is sown instead of love, and pessimism is generated everywhere instead of hope, I would like to focus on the basic values of our life together.”
At first the teachers would have looked in disbelief when the unknown surprise visitor arrived with the strange objects. Then the faces brightened, the teachers started telling jokes, ran through the homes and thought about where the colorful works of art could be hung up. “They wanted to talk, tell stories,” said Aljoscha.
Combat helplessness with action
But the artist was not always welcomed with open arms. At Vinnytsia, for example, the suspicious head of a home wanted to see Aljoscha’s passport. Later on the highway, heavily armed police stopped the artist’s car and arrested him. The Ukrainian secret service interrogated him for hours until Aljoscha suddenly saw the scan of his German passport in the hands of the secret service agents. “There’s a lot of paranoia here,” he says. “Everyone is now looking for Russian spies. In the end they let us go.”
In the cities, Alyosha heard the thunder of explosions. On the way he saw the warning signs “mined” on the roads. The way out of Kyiv to the west was blocked, he had to go south. Bridges were blown up. He drove through open terrain – and with him the fear of mines. But the thoughtful artist is not an adventurer. “I try to somehow fight the helplessness with my own actions,” he says.
Elena Viorika (from left), Vitali Sklarovskiy and Irina Lipobad stand under an installation by the artist Aljoscha in a Ukrainian nursing home
Source: dpa/-
Aljoscha studied in Kharkiv, which has been bombed by Russian troops for weeks. His friends live in besieged Izyum. His sister works as a nurse in a gynecological ward where babies are born when the siren sounds.
Democracy as a luxury good
As early as 2014, Aljoscha had used his “bioisms” for an art event at the barricades during the protests on the Maidan in Kiev against the government that was loyal to Moscow at the time. Does he hate Russian President Vladimir Putin, who first annexed Crimea and now launched a destructive war against the neighboring country? “Putin just makes me sad,” says Aljoscha.
Oleg Shepeta and Olena Seledkina are sitting in a room in the children’s home under an installation by the artist Aljoscha
Source: dpa/-
For him, the head of the Kremlin is a dictator, and Putin’s vassals are the oligarchs. “If people are only resources for oligarchic groups and dictators, you can’t plant democracy.”
Democracy is a “luxury good” that only grows where there is a developed bourgeoisie and the people are not poor. The artist sees the roots of hatred, intolerance and radicalism in the state ideologies, for which there are only black and white and the simplest solutions.