"The "Layers" project consists of photos taken between March and July 2022 in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Vinnitsa, Odessa, Kiev and Brodzianka. It is a visual story of destruction and hope, silent attempts to defend one's cultural identity and heritage."
Artist: Konrad Dobrucki
Project: Layers
"Seeing the devastation caused by the Russian invasion, members of Ukrainian local governments, parishes and non-governmental organizations, along with the civilian population, set about securing the works of art against expected rocket attacks or bombings. These efforts - but not only - are featured in my project."
"It is a typology consisting of 20 photographs of secured sculptures (13 shown here), including figures of poets, saints, national heroes, but also mythological figures.
There is also one antagonistic, distracting element: a diptych of two photos of the same destroyed monument to Shevchenko in Brodzianka. The first one is an unambiguous representation of the destruction caused by the war, but limited to the object - that is, the monument itself. The second, on the other hand, shows the monument against the background of completely bombed blocks, showing the real tragedy of people living in a country torn by war. Maybe this project is not about monuments at all, as it might seem?"
© Konrad Dobrucki