What is art? In peacetime, this question would seem philosophical. But during war, the answer becomes almost physical. Art is the language of memory that is recording people’s lives and experiences where the enemy seeks to leave a void. Since 2014 (beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war), Ukrainian art has become a target, and it is being destroyed intentionally to erase identity, history and people’s right to their own voice.
Today, Ukraine is seeing a growing interest in monumental art – mosaics, panels, sgraffito and stained glass. It is more often now that researchers, curators and independent initiatives turn to this type of heritage, reinterpreting it outside the soviet framework. For in most cases, monumental works in Ukrainian cities carried local plots, images and meanings related to the history of specific communities, the landscape and the cultural memory of each place. They popularised Ukrainian culture even in times of restrictions and censorship, spoke to people through images, symbols and space. The city of Mariupol occupied a special place in this history: it had one of the largest collections of monumental art in eastern and southern Ukraine – mosaics, sgraffito and stained glass artworks used to be an integral part of its architectural environment. Mariupol even preserved two panels by the legendary monumentalist Alla Horska, one of the key figures of the Ukrainian Sixties movement killed by the KGB in 1970. Her presence in the urban space was not accidental, but testified to a deeper cultural layer that shaped the city’s identity.
That is why Mariupol’s stained glass windows go far beyond the boundaries of a separate art genre. Stained glass is the most fragile form of monumental art, dependent on light, space and integrity of the building. In Mariupol, these artworks were unique in both scale and execution, but remained little known due to their interior nature. They existed for the daily life of the city – in the philharmonic hall, universities and palaces of culture – and were destroyed along with these buildings during the siege of 2022. The destruction of the stained glass windows was not only a loss of artistic objects, but also a symbol of the systematic erasure of cultural memory in the temporarily occupied territories. For this reason, their recording, study and public discussion are of critical importance today – as an act of remembrance and an attempt for us to preserve what we had no time to save physically.
The work of journalist and researcher Ivan Stanislavskyi, who had been engaged in systematic photographic documentation of Mariupol’s stained glass windows between 2019 and 2021, has therefore become extremely valuable. After the full-scale invasion, these images became the only evidence for the existence of these now-destroyed objects. This is how the photo project “Be Careful, Fragile!” came about, achieving national and international recognition with the support of the “City of Mary” team.
The exhibition speaks the language of loss. The images, printed on transparent acrylic, recreate the effect of glass, reminding us how fragile both art and human life are. Shattered pieces of real stained glass beside the works become a painful metaphor from the photographer: “I dedicate this project to the people of Mariupol, whose lives were shattered like these stained glass windows.” At the same time, the exhibition is a reminder that cultural heritage is not being destroyed “indirectly” but rather intentionally, as part of the war against Ukrainian identity.
Preserving art in such conditions is not about nostalgia, but about responsibility. It is this responsibility that the “City of Mary” team has embraced, initiating a series of cultural and exhibition projects that address memory, war and loss. Through art, they record what the enemy is trying to erase and create a space for processing traumatic experiences, both individual and collective. Exhibitions depicting destroyed cities, memorial projects, artistic reflections on war, loss and hope… All of these are various forms that serve the same purpose – preservation of meanings. In these initiatives, art is no longer just an aesthetic object but a tool of memory, a testimony, a medium for telling the truth.
In times of war, art changes. It becomes sharper, more honest, more vulnerable. But it is within this vulnerability that art finds its true power. The preserved images of the Mariupol stained glass windows prove this: even if physical objects are lost, their memory can live on, speak for itself and resist. And as long as this memory endures, the destruction will not be final.
Alevtina Shvetsova
Supportcentret Ya Mariupol