David Handley, the founder of the popular Sculpture by the Sea which returns next Friday after a three-year hiatus, had never heard of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol until February 2021.
Kyiv-based Port Cultural Projects Agency CEO Katya Taylor knew about the world’s largest free-to-the-public outdoor sculpture exhibition, which attracts as many as 450,000 visitors over a three-week period, and got in touch.
It was between COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, which forced the cancellation of the annual two-kilometre coastal sculpture walk, that had become a regular fixture on the Sydney Spring cultural calendar.
Three Ukrainian sculptors Dmitriy Grek, Egor Zigura and Nikita Zigura.Credit:Brook Mitchell
Handley got excited about an international co-pro which was slated for August 2021. He could see many similarities between Sydney and the Ukrainian port city, located at the mouth of Kalmius River and on the coast the Black Sea at the Sea of Azov.
“The plan was to put on an outdoor sculpture exhibition similar to ours on the golden sand beaches of Mariupol,” said Handley.
But increased Russian military activity in 2021 on the previous ceasefire border 15 kilometres away changed plans.
Ukrainian sculptor Nikita Zigura’s Global Warming in 2022’s Sculptures by the Sea.Credit:Sculptures by the Sea.
“As soon as the Russian tanks and troops rolled in we downed tools,” Handley said.
From February 24 this year Mariupol was under siege for three months of constant bombardment and is now occupied by Russia. Taylor and many of the sculptors fled Ukraine and are now living abroad as refugees.
Instead of exhibiting there, this year Sydney sculpture walk will showcase the work of four Ukrainian artists: with three of them Egor and Nikita Zigura and Oleksii Zolotariov with Kyiv curator Viktoria Kulikova, arriving in Sydney on Saturday.
Ukrainian sculptor Oleksii Zolotariov, with his sculpture Wind Rose in Ukraine.
Sculpture by the Sea is donating all of its commission on the sale of works by the Ukrainian artists to the Ukraine Crisis Appeal, and the artists are also donating 10 per cent of the sale price of their work.
Only one, Egor Zigura, now living as a refugee in the south of France, has had work in Sculpture by the Sea before in 2019; Kore that Awakening and Colossus Awakening which were perched on Tamarama Headland.
Egor Zigura’s work, ‘Kore that Awakening’ and ‘Colossus Awakening’ at Sculpture by the Sea.Credit:Janie Barrett
“I was the first Ukrainian sculptor to participate in Sculpture by the Sea. I was stunned by the show’s scope and the support I received from the organisers and team,” Zigura said.
This year’s show will feature two of his sculptures: Colossus Holds Up the World, and Way to Yourself and another will be erected this week on the Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail.
“The Russian Federation is committing indescribable violence in Ukraine. It is pure anguish. If you live in a peaceful country like Australia, it might be hard to imagine the horrors of war,” he said.
The trip here is a chance to see his twin brother, fellow sculptor Nikita Zigura, who is temporarily living on the island of Funen in Denmark.
“My sculpture’s title is Global Warming. It is two cherries with a map reminiscent of children’s geography textbooks. The colour is evocative of Ukrainian white cherries,” Nikita Zigura said.
“I did everything in my power to make sure that my children wouldn’t suffer physically or emotionally. I’m lucky in that they are now finally in safety in Denmark and can have a full childhood and education. That’s the most important thing.
“My brother and I are very grateful to the Australians for the warm welcome and for their support during the horrible time of Russia’s full-scale aggression in our home,” he said.
Sculpture by the Sea opens this Friday, October 21 and continues until November 7.
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