site.btaUkrainian Artists Send Message of Peace by Painting Icons on Ammunition Boxes

The Icons on Ammo Boxes exhibition by Ukrainian artists Sonya Atlantova and Oleksandr Klymenko is visiting Varna. The project was launched in 2014 and has been presented in 20 countries around the world, the embassy's First Secretary Irina Kozyak, who attended the opening of the exhibition on Wednesday, told BTA.

It is arranged in the cultural space ReBonkers on the occasion of the second anniversary of the beginning of Russia's war against Ukraine. The event was organized by the Ukrainian Embassy in Bulgaria together with the Municipality of Varna and the hosting venue.

The icons are painted on the bottoms and lids of wooden ammunition boxes that were brought from the front during the first Russian military actions against Ukraine, Kozyak explained. "Back then we didn't think there would be a war in the heart of Europe, and unfortunately we're two years into it. No one wants peace more than Ukrainians and this exhibition shows that. The artists decided back then to send a message that just as they were giving new life to the boxes through art, they would like Ukraine to have a new life that is not connected to the war," she added. Kozyak said that all profits from the sale of the icons at the exhibitions go to charity.

The opening of the exhibition in Varna was attended by both authors of the project. "Our project is a victory of life over death. Soon it will be Easter again and everyone is awaiting joy and good news," Klymenko said. He added that when they painted the icons, artists thought of the mothers who lost their sons at the front and of the people in Bucha, where the Russian occupiers fired on the temples. Klymenko said that with the war that started two years ago, all that has changed for the people on the front is the amount of blood and the number of friends who died. He himself lost his closest friend who was his sister's husband.