Sofia Atlantova & Olexander Klimenko

MARIUPOL DEISIS PROJECT

Dedicated to residents and defenders of Mariupol.

Produced in March-April 2022, the Mariupol Deisis project is a silent witness to the current war in Ukraine. Icons are painted on ammunition boxes brought from the war zone near Mariupol.

FROM ARTISTS:
Olexander Klimenko:
Eleven icons that seemed to be painted with tears and blood. A combination of tempera, charcoal, gold leaf...A classic Byzantine icon and "moonscapes" of a bombed-out city, hieratic and expressive... love and... Works that for a long time we could not, did not dare to publish anywhere, and which we could hardly show to anyone. Too painful, too personal... It was hard to paint, but it was even harder to let go... something was holding me back... maybe it was that I was afraid, to tell the truth, or maybe I was ashamed that I was not with them, those who were still there in inhumane conditions and at the same time supported all of us...But I finally let go... Yesterday the project went to the European Parliament for an exhibition... Finally dared to publish it on my page... (April 9, 2022)

An empty, destroyed, at first glance, depopulated city, which, however, is full of people, still alive despite everything. These people are not visible, but they are there. They hide among the ruins, and it is these people, and not the buildings, that become a symbol of indomitability. It is for them that the Saints pray. It is to these people, who we neither see nor know, that this project is dedicated to.

Sofia Atlantova: Working on the project required a great deal of prudence and tact towards the victims of this tragedy. Realizing that I would never fully understand what the residents and defenders of Mariupol felt, I kept asking myself whether I had the moral right to speak out on this matter. Isn't silence more appropriate in the face of such grief and heroism? But if you just keep silent, then it eventually takes the form of indifference... I wanted to tell the whole world about what was happening in Ukraine, but it felt as if I was telling about it to the Saints whom we portray. It's very internal, so it's hard to put into words. I draw dirty charcoal lines, I think about people who cannot be seen under the debris, I think about the absurdity, inadmissibility, inconceivableness of what is happening. The same absurdity as a charcoal sketch of an icon...

A row of paintings on the side of a fence.

Eleven icons on ammunition boxes, mixed media, March – April 2022.
Traditional Byzantine composition of Deisis (The Last Judgment prayer) with charcoal sketches of Mariupol cityscapes, a Ukrainian city destroyed by the Russians' aggressors.

A woman standing in front of several easels with paintings on them.

Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, opened the "Mariupol Deisis" project by Sonia Atlantova and Olexander Klimenko at the European Parliament in Brussels in April 2022.


Icons on Ammunition Boxes™
is a conceptual project by Ukrainian artists Sofia Atlantova and Olexander Klimenko, launched in 2014. Icons painted on fragments from ammunition boxes from the war zones in Ukraine serve as silent war witnesses and, at the same time, symbols of victory of life over death.

Since February 2023, the Project has supported Kryla Peremogy (Wings of Victory) volunteer organization in Ukraine that provides free medical assistance by ambulance to servicemen who were seriously injured and disabled during the Russia-Ukraine war. Services include transportation outside the hospital for additional examinations, consultation with doctors, and ambulatory treatments.

From 2015 to 2022, the Project supported Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital, the largest private hospital in Ukraine, fully operational during the current war, helping the army and civilian population.

ARTISTS STATEMENT:

Transforming death into life. Transformation of war into peace. This is what everyone who faced the horrors of war dreams of. The Icons on Ammunition Boxes project, which we started in the autumn of 2014, was our common dream of peace in Ukraine. An icon can wonderfully tell not only about the events of two thousand years ago but also about the tragic vicissitudes of modern warfare, the war unfolding before our eyes, the war in which hundreds of thousands are directly involved, and millions are displaced.

It turned out that icons' classical context could be altered by painting them not on the usual icon-painting board, but on fragments from ammunition boxes brought from the Front. An icon, while remaining an icon, expands its semantic and symbolic symbols, a testament not only to the Incarnation but also to the tragedy of modern war.

The board on which a traditional icon is painted is incredibly similar to the lid or bottom of an ammunition box - the same shield, made of boards and reinforced to avoid deformation, with spoons. This strange resemblance prompted us to paint the first icon of the project. While visiting the base of one of the volunteer battalions in the fall of 2014, we noticed this phenomenon. When we saw a pile of empty ammunition boxes, we asked the military what they were doing with them. Most of them were burned, and some were made into donkeys and shelves. Having received as a gift from the soldiers one of the boxes, dark and slightly smoky, the next day, we used its bottom to paint an icon of the Mother of God, focusing on the classic Old Byzantine model. What carried death, in the process of the creative act, began to carry what in the Ukrainian tradition is associated with life, symbolizing it like nothing else - an icon.

Ammunition boxes are visually similar to coffins. Moreover, these boxes are usually like coffins, hidden deep underground in military warehouses and arsenals. The war begins and, like in a Hollywood horror movie, and coffin boxes appear in the world of God, death escapes from them, destroying everything in its path. However, the last point in this process is set by the artist, and the shells of death, "its place of residence," strangely begin to radiate life.

Work on the first series of icons began in mid-autumn of 2014 and lasted until the end of the winter of 2015 during the fierce battles for the Donetsk airport (DAP) in the tragic days of Debaltseve's defense. In fact, a significant number of boxes for the first icons were brought from the village of Pisky, near DAP. We were pleasantly surprised and quite impressed by the reaction of the military and volunteers to our project, their enthusiasm, and their willingness to help and to bring ammunition boxes from the Front because even during fierce battles, under bullets, shells, and mines, they did not forget about our request. Sometimes, picking up a pile of boxes, someone would call from the Front to apologize for not bringing the boxes we needed, as they were all destroyed during the artillery shelling. That is why those who brought ammunition boxes from the Front, in our opinion, can be considered full participants in the project, a kind of co-authors. Finding, saving, and bringing a box from the Front is incredibly important for the project; it is, in our opinion, the same creative act as painting the icon itself. Of course, the project would not have taken place without the military and volunteers. This co-authorship seems to have been extremely valuable to all those who, for all these years, often risked their own lives to collect and carry boxes from the Front.

One of the central metaphors of our project is that ammunition boxes, after the battle, get a new life, acquire a new function, and become icons. In the same way, veterans must receive the public love, respect, and care they undoubtedly fully deserve.

Another important part of the project is volunteerism. Volunteering became an example of the self-organization of Ukrainians, a kind of test of humanity, a clear manifestation of grassroots democracy. Volunteering is also a sign of the maturity of civil society and the readiness of this society to solve complex issues to overcome the challenges posed by modernity. At the same time, volunteering fits perfectly into the Christian concept of self-sacrifice and helping others. Perhaps volunteering is what the modern Ukrainian is most successful at, something Ukrainians can be proud of, a unique experience that we can and are ready to share with the world.

It seemed unethical to us to keep funds from the sale of icons for ourselves during the war as if profiting from death and war. That's why we decided to turn our art project into a volunteer initiative. We approached one of the founders of the Pirogov First Mobile Hospital. Gennady Druzenko, with a proposal for cooperation, and since then, we have mainly helped this hospital - the largest non-governmental medical project in the environmental protection zone. Our art initiative became one of the hospital's main financial donors, providing more than 90 percent of its needs.

Thus, if the first stage of the project was an attempt to speak about the modern war in the language of traditional art, then gradually, the emphasis shifted and included discussions of the role of volunteering in the context of this war. The art project went beyond its own limits. The symbolic victory of life over death - its core idea - has become a reality.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Two people holding up paintings of jesus and a woman.

SOFIA ATLANTOVA

(b.1981, lives & works in Kyiv, Ukraine)
Graduate of the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture. Works in the field of monumental and easel painting, book graphics, and installations. Participated in exhibitions in Ukraine and abroad. Her books were included in short and long lists of several literary awards in Ukraine and abroad, in particular - "BBC Book of the Year."

OLEXANDER KLIMENKO

(b.1976, lives & works in Kyiv, Ukraine)
Graduate of the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (1998), Institute of Art History, Folklore and Ethnology, and National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (2002). Taught at the Kyiv State Institute of Decorative Arts and Design and at the Higher Humanitarian Theological Courses (Kyiv). Participated in exhibitions in Ukraine and abroad and organized a number of literary and artistic events and performances. Author of the idea and one of the curators of the project "Icons on Ammunition Boxes"™.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:

Black & White Gallery/Project Space, Volta New York 2024, New York, NY, USA (September 2024)
Buzau International Arts Festival, Buzau, Rumania (September, 2024)
Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine (August, 2024)
The National Folk Decorative Art Museum, Kyiv, Ukraine (June -August, 2024)
National Preserve Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Kyiv, Ukraine (May- June, 2024)
Kaunas Ninth Fort Museum, Kaunas, Lithuania (February - September, 2024)
The National History Museum of Moldova, Chisinau, Moldova (February - March, 2024)
Independent Cultural Space ReBonkers, Varna, Bulgaria (February - March, 2024)
St Mary's University Church, Oxford, England, (December, 2022 – February, 2023)
Black & White Gallery/Project Space, Aqua Art Miami, Miami, FL. USA (December 2022)
Museum of Folk Art, Budapest, Hungary (October -  November, 2022)
Saint Geryon Basilica, Cologne, Germany (September, 2022)
Economic Congress 590, Warsaw, Poland (June, 2022)
Katholikentag, Stuttgart, Germany (May, 2022)
European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium (May, 2022)