Installation by Ukrainian artists presented at Burning Man 2024 festival

At the world-famous Burning Man 2024 contemporary art festival, Ukrainian artists presented an installation of shot road signs and other damaged objects. They made the phrase "I'm Fine".

This was reported by the communications team of the Ukrainian Witness Media Project.

This year's Ukrainian installation is 32 meters long, 7 meters high and weighs more than 10 tons. It was created by Ukrainian artist Oleksiy Say and Ukrainian Witness founder Vitaliy Deynega.

To create the installation, the artists used real war artifacts that they collected in the de-occupied territories. These include shot street signs, solar panels, satellite dishes, destroyed city signs and broken fences.

The artist Vitaliy Deynega told us how the local community reacted to the installation, and what meaning their message carries to the world: <span style="font-size: 1em;">"People stand and watch. Sometimes for a very long time. The braver ones touch the sharp edges. Many people cry. It seems that our idea worked and tens of thousands of people will hear it here."</span>

The work illustrates to the world the devastating consequences of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, which destroyed more than 2024 objects of Ukraine's cultural heritage, including libraries, theaters and art educational centers. Of these, 334 objects were completely destroyed and cannot be restored. The scale of the installation allows us to feel the depth of the human stories behind these signs.

PHOTO: Vitalii Deynega

The largest number of these signs are those that have been shot and torn by shrapnel. There are twelve of them in total. These are about people killed by the Russians at the beginning of the war simply for crossing the road or riding a bicycle on business. There are two signs that say "children be careful". One was taken near a school completely destroyed by Russians in the Kherson region. There is a piece of a shopping center. There are large road signs with the names of settlements: from Velyka Krynytsia to Kherson, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv.

According to the project creators, every Ukrainian has been answering this question in their own way for over a decade. Behind every "I'm Fine" is a story of war.

<span style="font-size: 1em;">"We are really 'normal,' but our normal is more terrible than nightmares. But we live, fight and even try to be happy sometimes. We are 'okay'. We are even ready to sincerely ask the world "how are you doing?"," </span>Vitaliy Deynega<span style="font-size: 1em;">emphasized </span><span style="font-size: 1em;">.</span>

The Burning Man festival is held annually in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA, and attracts up to 80,000 participants from around the world.

PHOTO: Vitalii Deynega

The creation of the installation, logistics and communication were supported by foreign donors who shared the goal of Ukrainian artists to convey the truth about the war to the world community.

Earlier,the exhibition"Language Exercises" was opened in Mykolaiv. Similar exhibitions are being held in eight frontline regions of Ukraine. It is dedicated to the issue of language as a component of national identity formation.

According to the project's co-organizer Yevhen Homoniuk, each of the artists reflects on their Russian-speaking past or addresses the topics of national identity, Ukrainian roots, or their roots and family in general.

Art is a function of human creativity, which is available to everyone, so it cannot be absent. The culture of the beginning of Ukraine's independence, artists in revolutions, the political system, money in art, common experience and the Sovietness of Odesa are the main points of Intent 's exclusive interview with Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta, director of the National Cultural and Artistic Museum Complex Mystetskyi Arsenal.