Blanket

Victoria Teletien, Yurii Shtaida

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Artist statement:

On the morning of October 11, we gathered mushrooms in the forest near the city of Lviv. Suddenly there was an air alarm. It was very far from the nearest bomb shelter, so we continued hunting for mushrooms. When we heard a sound that sounded very much like a jet plane, we ignored it. But this sound kept getting closer and closer, and when we heard the anti-aircraft defense was working, we realized that it was not an airplane, but a missile. We immediately fell to the ground and froze. The rocket flew above us, 50 meters above us. It was very scary, and we squeezed into the ground harder. To relieve stress, we began to breathe more often, feeling the very pleasant smell of autumn leaves. Air defense was working all the time, but it could not shoot down the rocket, and it exploded somewhere in Lviv. We lay there for another 15 minutes, trying to regain consciousness. Then we got up and continued to gather mushrooms.

 

Our land-art project "Blanket" is about safety and protection in the forest, because nobody launch missiles to the pure nature. Their targets are cities with people. Their targets are our homes, which used to be a safe haven for us before the war.

 

When we hid in the forest, we felt more protected than at home, and the trees around us calmed us down. We wanted to wrap ourselves in this soothing state like a blanket.