On July 12, 2022, the opening of the exhibition by Elena Zublevich and Anastasia Tori will take place at VORONA GALLERY, Berlin.
Every day: to be born–to die–to be born–to die–to be born…
The outbreak of the war caught us off guard. Numbness, panic, disorientation from the explosions. We did not want this experience, but we received it. It is impossible to grasp this state just by reading a text or looking at images or videos. You can understand it only by feeling it with your own body.
The helplessness of being unable to stop the war, the helplessness of being unable to calculate with your mind the course of events. Where will the bomb fall? On the neighbors’ house, the house of friends? On your house? “They won’t touch Odesa, it’s such a beautiful city,” and then you see museums and theaters being destroyed in other cities. Nothing can be foretold. People say to each other: “I hope if I die, it will be quick and painless.” Everyone has accepted the possibility of accidental death, as long as they won’t be left crippled — or worse, forced to witness horrors with their own eyes. This is what everyone fears most. Not the soldier — the civilian.
On the first day of the war, two hours after the explosions, I went to the sea (with a backpack and passport, of course). Never before had it been frightening to walk toward the sunrise. That morning, the world stopped feeling safe. At the sea, I met a friend — a writer — we talked, took a photo “just in case” with the sea behind us (something we had never done before), and agreed that once we returned home, to our apartments, we would devote ourselves to creativity. She — to her book, and I — to my paintings. None of it happened.
A week later, after winding labyrinths of thoughts and dead ends of despair, I began making collages. Symbolic collages with elements of mythology and the sacred.
Mythologization, symbolism, turning to higher forces, to ancestral roots — all of this is a consequence of discovering oneself as a fragile human being. When our own strength is not enough, we turn to the higher. When logic cannot explain the invasion of evil, images come into play.
The well-known “faith, hope, love” — become sacralized and turn into the main guiding principles. The most important among all human concerns. Money, work, home — these lose any weight. The desire to live; to live in love; to observe the world, to spend time with loved ones — becomes more important than anything else.
And there is no other way. To surrender to evil is to bury the world. To be grateful for life — to value each moment — is the only path.
To be born every day, to die every day… and to be born again — this is, in essence, what always happens to us; it is something we must recognize unconditionally. But with war, for many, this turned from a metaphorical concept into the literal act of piecing oneself together bit by bit. Life goes on, even during war. The sun rises, birds build nests, spring comes, and soon it is summer. The universal laws have not been canceled.
Where there is darkness, there is no light, no love. And every day we have a choice: to shine or to sink into the darkness.
Olena Zublevich
The exhibition took place in July–August 2022.
OIL PAINTING
Printed digital ART (limited edition)
Collages can be purchased online by writing to painting@zublevich.art.
