As you read this, the Ukrainian art advocate and curator Maria Lanko is well on her way along the harrowing journey from besieged Kyiv to Venice, Italy; traveling, according to reports, in an intrepid, beat up white Audi.

She’s got precious cargo in tow - the disassembled pieces of an important sculpture by Pavlov Makov, which will be the centerpiece of Ukraine’s exhibition at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.

Maria Lanko’s curatorial partner, Lizaveta German, with whom she co-founded the Kyiv-based art space Naked Room, has relocated to Lviv, eight hours west of Kyiv nearer the Polish border. She is nine months pregnant, reliant on the help of friends to keep her safe, while continuing to manage communication about the art and its enormous cultural significance.

Lanko, German and Borys Filonenko of ist publishing are the curators of this year’s Ukrainian Pavilion at the Biennale, scheduled to open to the public Saturday, April 23, 2022. Given the situation on the ground in Ukraine, there were grave doubts that Pavlov Makov and his team would be able to leave the country, let alone mount an exhibition for what is arguably the most prestigious art show in the world.

But as the world has witnessed, Ukrainians do not give up. Ukrainians do not back down. Ukrainians fight, and the country’s cultural warriors are no exception.

The aforementioned sculpture, being transported by car to Venice is The Fountain of Exhaustion. Acqua Alta (1995 - 2022) a highly charged and symbolic project by the artist Pavlov Makov which has evolved and deepened in meaning since its first unveiling in 1995.

Under the threat of the coming invasion, Pavlov Makov worked for months, readying and recreating the work with new inspiration from contemporary concerns. Fountain of Exhaustion. Acqua Alta will combine the large kinetic sculpture with archival records about its 20-year history. As powerful as ever given the unthinkable tragedy besetting his country, Makov’s work addresses infrastructural decay, climate destruction, cultural erasure, social malaise and the horrors of war. 

Frequent water supply interruptions and abandoned fountains in Kharkiv first inspired Makov to embark on the creation of a series of works about water. He has said that the place where Lopat’ and Kharkiv rivers merge in Ukraine moved him to imagine a funnel motif and from there was born the concept of multiple sources of water flowing together, petering out and ultimately depleting themselves.

Makov’s kinetic sculpture is made up of a wall of funnels. These are the pieces being transported in Maria Lanko’s car. The water moves between the funnels, arranged in an inverted pyramid, so that the water from the top never makes it to the bottom. The opposite of a traditional fountain, The Fountain of Exhaustion goes dry, dies. Reimagined today, 27 years after it was initially conceived, the work speaks to the threat of climate devastation, especially poignant in the city of Venice where the world famous canals alternate between periods of flooding and drought (known as “acqua alta” or high water).

Indomitable in the face of unthinkable tragedy

The Fountain of Exhaustion. Acqua Alta has become a powerful symbol of the unstoppable Ukrainian spirit, the refusal to let Putin and his Russian invasion erase their culture’s rich heritage and collective memory. That these artists and so many others refuse to stay silent, refuse to lie down and let Putin’s tanks remove evidence of their cultural might is an inspiration to us all.

As Lizeta German wrote on Facebook recently, “we stay here and we do our best to remind the world that we are the nation of intelligent and astonishingly brave artists who keep fighting on their own "battlefields" for Ukraine to be recognized with dignity.”

How you can help:

Here in the states we are mostly helpless in the face of the atrocities being committed by Russia against Ukraine. However many organizations are collecting donations and providing support to partners on the ground.

We thank VIA Art Fund for the below list of companies , shared recently on their social media. Please do what you can to #StandWithUkraine.

@careorg
@redcrossukraine
@doctorswithoutborders
@novaukraine
@airlinkflight
@globalempowermentmission
@hiasrefugees
@rescueorg

*Cover Image - The Motherland Monument in Ukraine. Photo by Rostislav Artov.