On 29 August at 14:00, the exhibition “This Could Be Silence” will open in the Main Building of the War Museum – about the sky above graves, the names of the fallen and the history of the minute of silence. The exhibition is dedicated to the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine.
29 August is another day when we remember our own and remind everyone of the price of our Independence.
The centrepiece of the exhibition will be Veronika Mol’s work “This Could Be Silence” – 470 photographs of the sky above the graves of fallen defenders, accompanied by their names.
“It is important to me to preserve the memory of the fallen defenders with dignity, while at the same time recognising the scale of this loss. Amid the multitude of names, every single one matters – just as individual fragments of the Ukrainian sky come together to form a single whole,” – Veronika Mol, artist and co-author of the exhibition.
A separate part of the exhibition will tell the history of the minute of silence – from its origins to contemporary Ukrainian practice. Through it, the authors of the exhibition seek to discuss the daily ritual of remembrance, its significance and how collective action helps society remember.
“We spent a long time researching the century-long history of the minute of silence and how it became the national ritual it is today. And it seems to me that knowing its origins gives us firm ground beneath our feet, gives us that continuity from the insurgent army to the present day,” – says Kateryna Datsenko, co-founder of the NGO “Vshanui”.
We so often lower our eyes to the ground.
But what about the sky?
