The show ‘Siren’s Song’ should include ten new paintings with motifs of sirens, war ruins and ancient Greek items from Ukrainian museums, looted by Russian army during occupation. Listening to the siren (air raid alarm) almost every day in Kyiv inspired me to literally depict sirens – mainly as stone sculptures of Greek and Roman origin. Also I paint ruins – the lens of ‘romantic ruin’ image creates the ’therapeutic’ distance towards war rubble, which became a usual part of the environment in many Ukrainian cities. The Black sea cost was the place where Greek colonies were created in VII–V BC. Now a big part of this territory is occupied by Russian Federation, as well as other Southern Ukrainian cities, where museums treasured many Greek antiquities. Looted museums of Southern Ukraine became one of terrible symbols of ongoing war. When I recently opened a book ‘Greek and Roman Art in Ukrainian museums’, published in 1980s in Soviet Ukraine, the book which belongs to my parents and which I remember since childhood, I realised that it recently turned into a comprehensive catalogue of looted museum items. This book became one more source for my work.

Artists: Nikita Kadan