If you ask me, tomorrow is just a simple morning, the hustle and bustle of cities rushing under the vastness of the clear sky. Tomorrow is a day for which we fight and endure unimaginable losses. Tomorrow, we will build a new home, grander than any of the ancient seven wonders of the world. But today, a significant part of Ukraine is occupied and lies in ruins. Ukrainian culture has suffered immeasurable losses, as numerous cultural landmarks have been destroyed, many of which were deliberately eradicated to eliminate everything Ukrainian from our land.

In my project, I aim to construct an image of “tomorrow,”a new Ukrainian utopia that emerges from the fusion of remnants of previous eras that shaped their vision of the future. I’ve chosen seven cultural objects in Ukraine, each of which is given the context of one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. In this way, I propose viewing the construction of these new landmarks as a symbolic act of rebuilding the entire country, one that can rival the colossal structures of antiquity in grandeur. The future is impossible without a reassessment of the past, without reflection that allows us to understand ourselves in a global context. Therefore, I “rebuild” these structures, drawing upon the legacy of the Ukrainian Avant-Garde from the 1910s-1930s. This artistic period is one of the brightest pages in Ukrainian art history, as it gave birth to a plethora of artists: Alexander Bogomazov, Vladimir Tatlin, Alexander Khvostenko-Khvostov, Alexandra Exter, Victor Palmov, David Burliuk, Maria Sinyakova, and countless others, creating radically new art for a new world. However, this unprecedented cultural blossoming was uprooted by Stalin’s terror: many artists were killed, their works destroyed, and those who survived were forced to work to glorify an inhumane system. Instead, all the achievements of Ukrainian art during this period were falsely attributed to the “Russian Avant-Garde,” stealing not only the artists but also their faith in the future. Therefore, using their ideas and style is my compensation for the lost utopia, a manifestation that the bright future constructed by Ukrainian avant-gardists cannot be destroyed by repression and mass killings. Our generation will bring to life the tomorrow for which our geniuses gave their lives.

The cycle was created as part of the project “Renaissance” by Depositphotos and the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.

#NEIVANMADE