Artists react to the war in Ukraine
She carefully forms the small face, using her thumbs to make holes for the eyes and mouth, and then slowly forms the nose. Once she is done, she places the head carefully next to the others, a pile of screaming clay children on the floor. She started making the heads already when she was in her home in Odesa, and she continued after she fled to Moldova, Italy and now Germany. Some of the artists have fled to Berlin. Others are spread out throughout Europe, some are still in Ukraine. The exhibition is held in a basement, intentionally so to give visitors a feeling for what it is like to live in a bomb shelter for days. In one room large pictures by the artist Mikhail Ray show faces that have been sawn up in letters, like the Z. The artist is from Kherson, a town now occupied by Russian troops. The exhibition “The Captured House” is shown in Berlin until May 15. It will then be unveiled in Paris, Rome and Amsterdam.
