Ukrainian pavilion at the Venice Biennale is an expression of resistance against Russia

Venice - The installation of Ukrainian artist Pavlo Makov at this year's Venice Biennale has also become an act of defiance against the Russian attacks, which have recently been increasingly aimed at Makov's hometown of Kharkiv. According to the artist, who was born in Russia but considers himself Ukrainian, the Russians not only want to occupy his homeland but also want to literally erase the entire Ukrainian culture. This was reported by the AP agency.

"The war in Ukraine is not just an ethnic conflict. It is a clash of cultures. They want to destroy, demolish, and erase the entire Ukrainian culture so that Ukraine ceases to exist," believes the 63-year-old Makov.

One of the most prominent living Ukrainian artists traveled to the biennale on March 2 by car, cramming in his wife, two family friends, and his 92-year-old mother. As they left Kharkiv, rockets were flying overhead.

By that time, the center of the historic city, which was the Ukrainian metropolis during Soviet times and is known for its constructivist architecture from the 1920s and 1930s, had largely been destroyed. Makov left behind his adult son and daughter, who are working as volunteers to help the besieged people - and also a huge collection of his works.

"I didn't even consider taking my things with me because there simply wasn't space for them," he said. "Besides - we were leaving from a shelter, not from an apartment or a studio."

Makov's artworks are now safe in western Ukraine. The one he is exhibiting at the Venetian pavilion was brought out of Ukraine by one of the curators - Marija Lanková. Another curator, Lizaveta Germanová, fled with her newborn son, who was born in Lviv during a lull between sirens. He is now a month old and calmly nurses to the sound of falling water, which is a part of the Ukrainian installation.

Pavlo Makov's sculptural work titled The Fountain of Exhaustion. Acqua Alta (Fontána vyčerpání. Velká voda) is a 3.5-meter-high pyramid-shaped fountain made of funnels placed on a concrete wall in the Arsenale's armory. The audience will be able to see it from Saturday when the 59th edition of the biennale begins.

In creating it, Makov says he was inspired by the lack of vitality he felt when Ukraine gained independence in the early 1990s and when he traveled through Europe after 2000. "I felt a lack of determination to defend ideals. I sensed the growing dependence on energy that Europe gets from undemocratic countries," says Makov. This feeling culminated during the pandemic and also after the war with Russia began.

Now in Venice, Makov talks much more about the war than about his art. "For us, this feels like a diplomatic mission. I no longer see myself so much as an artist, but rather as a citizen of my country," he says.

This corresponds to another initiative by Ukrainian curators, who created a sort of Ukrainian square around sandbags in the Giardini park, lined with posters created by Ukrainian artists during the war.

They show, for instance, a stylized depiction of soldiers taking cover from gunfire using parts from a playground. Others feature children whose parents wrote their names and birth dates on their backs with indelible markers, fearing that they may get lost in the chaos of war. One of the motifs is the sinking cruiser Moskva.

"You know, the only dialogue we are currently having with Russian culture is the one on the front lines. No other dialogue exists," concludes Makov.