Artists, as you know, live on the edge, sensing the world around them very subtly, sometimes anticipating something in their works, but they themselves do not always understand what exactly. I started painting this red picture a year before the war in my studio apartment in Irpin, feeling the approach of something heavy and bloody. I am safe now, but my workshop where this work was written is gone, it was hit by a bomb and completely destroyed. At that time, of course, I could not even imagine the events that would happen later, but I had a premonition. There, in Irpin, we made this installation with fabric that comes out of the picture and spills around, like human pain. As you know, in Irpin and the surrounding cities, during the occupation, many people were tortured and killed… then I also did not know that people would be blindfolded before death, just like mine was… look at the picture, close eyes and feel how Ukraine hurts, no heart can contain so much pain. The painting shows me wrapped in the same red cloth that will later serve as part of the installation. In the photo I am wearing a Ukrainian vyshyvanka. The photo was taken 5 months before the war. If you look closely, you can see that the support from the picture forms a cross in the light, and above my head I have a nimbus, all this as a symbol of martyrdom.. my premonition fully reflected what happened later.. let’s honor with a moment of silence all those who are no longer with us..