UKRAINIAN SLIDE PROJECT
by the Playground on the Kaczyński Square
site specific installation
The idea for the project was based on the current war experience of the Ukrainian people. The title slide is an authentic object from one of the playgrounds in central Ukraine (Irpin), shelled by the Russian occupiers. The slide is an object of memory, a silent witness to history, which brings the tragedy of war claiming innocent victims closer. The project aims to draw attention to the current situation of Ukraine, plagued by war.
The exhibition also has another, positive dimension – people who are not indifferent to the fate of our neighbours can support the online public collection with a donation. The funds raised will go towards the reconstruction of the aforementioned playground and humanitarian aid. A link to the collection is available at https://www.ukrainedefenders.org.
The story of this project is closely linked to the authentic experiences of those who fled the horrors of war from Ukraine and, through the presentation of the aforementioned object, wish to tell the world about their tragic fate.
‘My wife, Natalia is Ukrainian, originally from Pryvillia in the Donbas, where Russians have committed some horrific war crimes recently. Very fortunately she left in 2012 for University and didn’t return due to the Russian invasion in 2014. Instead, her and her family moved to Kyiv and started a life there (where I met her in 2019). We left Ukraine in January this year to be on the safe side when we heard the US warning of an invasion. Unfortunately, her family didn’t want to leave just incase, and so on the first day of the war we scrambled to get her mum out. We finally managed to do it on the third night of the war. We also worked to get friends and acquaintances out, offered help, arranged accommodation. Then we rented a car and delivered aid to the border of Poland with a friend of ours, the same night the rocket hit near the border of Poland, just 30 mins after we left and our contacts who were delivering the aid on the Ukrainian side rushed to safety in a bomb shelter’.
