War and Pea€e

Three years after the performance of Maria Kulikovska «Untitled» at Shcherbenko Art Centre, in which she screamed desperately to the ground, the artist repeated this performance on the beach of the Mariupol city, Donetsk region. The performance in Kyiv was a premonition, in Mariupol was already a long-lasting experience of the conflict. Kulikovska's scream on a crowded beach contrasted with the reconciliation of the local inhabitants with the military situation.

«On June 18, it was very hot, summer, the angry sun burned everything. People, tired of hard work in the factory, arrived on the beach. In Mariupol, all industrial plants send poison through the sewers to the Sea of Azov. Around the city there is always thick smog. On the other side of the sea is my house - occupied Crimea. In the east, 20 km away, the war, the daily bombard. But people, tired of war and hot temperatures, just rest on the beach, which was full of mines and people with guns. People were tolerant of death, weapons, violence, war. I also came to the beach to scream. I looked at the sea, which is the boundary between my house and the war. I looked east and I saw bombs on the horizon. I was frightened, but my voice was so quiet compared to the laughter and screams of the children, running around me and playing with each other on the shelled ground...»*.

10 silkscreen prints of Maria Kulikovska's performance «War and Pea€e» on the basis of photographic documentation made by Sergey Vaganov. These silkscreen prints were made in the workshop of the platform of cultural initiatives «Izolyatsia» in Kyiv, 2019.

*from Maria Kulikovska's memories.