Heroes Without Weapons
It could almost be mistaken for any cafe nestled in a city center, provided one ignored the barrage of rocket attacks, the cacophony of air-raid sirens, and the massive mural of a Ukrainian firefighter on a building nearby.
In June 2023, ARC representative Oleksandra Yakubenko sat down in Kyiv with the mural’s creator, street artist Vitaliy Gideone and his wife, the painter Olena Noyna. The conversation touched on life in wartime (the couple has not left the country since the conflict began), the nation’s evolving artworld, and the hopes and challenges of contemporary Ukrainian artists.
ARC, Oleksandra Yakubenko: The last couple days in Kyiv have been particularly difficult. How have you been doing?
Vitaliy: It’s been a week since Olena wakes up and shakes me: get up! We go into the corridor and wait there.
It is difficult, very difficult and morally difficult to go through it. It is difficult for me, but for our military it is even worse…such a pressure, such a time, that I do not know how one can live through it…Only probably if there is support from loved ones, the country, and other people.
ARC: It’s been a year and a half since the full-scale invasion began. How has your creative output changed since?
Vitaliy: Creativity has changed, it has become more about patriotism, because the main thing now is victory, so we are that artistic support, which is now the main thing for our warriors, for our people.
ARC: It is of course difficult to create art in wartime. What was your first project after the invasion began?
Vitaliy: The first days when everything started, and when bombs were already falling on Kyiv on the 24th, I already had ideas then. I wanted to do something, but I was in such a state of anxiety, I fell into depression, but thanks to my family it was easier to go through all of this. After about a week or two I started making sketches on the tablet, then I was asked if I could make a booklet for the animal shelter. I made a booklet on a volunteer basis and then somehow I started to immerse myself more in the work again. It became easier for me and then more ideas appeared and in a month and a half I already had more complex sketches and we did the mural in May, right? Patron?
Olena: In June.
Vitaliy: Yes, in June. I started sketching in May. This was the first project. Then other works appeared after that. The period itself was difficult, but thanks to work, it was easier for me to get through it.
ARC: That mural, through its patriotic creative direction and depiction of Patron, offers moral support for any Ukrainian that sees it. I do want to discuss the mural in front of which we just took a picture [the mural by the café]. Tell us more about it and how you brought it into the world.
Vitaliy: Back in 2021, we made a large mural for the firefighters of the largest firehouse in Eastern Europe – 25th State Fire and Rescue Unit in Kyiv – and in May we were offered to make a commemoration mural on the administrative building of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, because when Kyiv was bombed, a lot of firefighters were injured and died. Died during extinguishing, under rubble — this is a very difficult and important job. We were offered to make a mural. We took the key phrase: Heroes without weapons, which is also reflected in the work.
ARC: Is this their slogan?
Vitaliy: Yes, it is a slogan of struggle and support. Firefighters don’t have weapons,
but they have spirit and they save people.
ARC: Of course, the soldiers, rescuers, firefighters, and medical professionals who protect civilians from Russian attacks are the true heroes of Ukrainian civil society, and your work testifies to the gratitude and recognition of their work. I know your work is not limited to Kyiv. Where else have you made murals recently?
Vitaliy: Recently, in my home city of Pryluky (Chernihiv region, East North of Ukraine, frontline region), we painted a Cossack on 9 floors. People’s reaction was…someone walks, upset, raises their head, and everything else for them disappears and only the picture remains. They just stand and stare. This is the best reaction when people get out of their information bubble and forget their problems.
ARC: It must be a special feeling for the citizens of a small town to see the creative process involved in such a large work. How did they react to it?
Vitaliy: There were no negative comments, except for some who were interested in not having the work at all.
ARC: Before the war, street art received a fair share of criticism in Ukraine. Have you noticed changes in Ukrainian attitudes towards it since the start of the invasion?
Vitaliy: I noticed that people have become more interested.
Olena: It has become more popular…in 2021 and in recent years, Ukrainian murals have increased. It was more of a European thing, something incomprehensible for Ukrainians. Murals in recent years, thanks to certain personalities who started to promote them, people began to get used to street art in the form of murals.
ARC: Right, it was misunderstood—they thought that graffiti was bad words written on a fence.
Vitaliy: And also…when did Banksy make works? This was a very significant contribution for future artists.
ARC: It also became a tourist attraction.
Olena: We are currently in the process of making a route of our works and cyclists are creating a bicycle tour along this route. In Google, we’re developing special marks on the map of Kyiv where the murals can be found.
ARC: You mentioned that you know many artists who have suffered from burnout or who have lacked opportunities to create works and have moved on to other industries to earn a living. Can you tell us more about this situation?
Vitaliy: Opportunities are the main thing…
Olena: It is very expensive now to create murals. In particular, people do not want to invest if they are unsure if the work will still be standing tomorrow.
ARC: Apart from financial support, what do Ukrainian artists lack from the international community?
Vitaliy: I would like to make a series of murals about Ukraine outside Ukraine, this is my dream. To see what other countries are doing and to show what Ukrainians are creating. There is not enough communication, there used to be festivals and workshops. Now there is no such thing.
Olena: When we draw, many children come up and ask to paint, I show them the equipment, the respirator, and let them paint. I see how their eyes shine, they are missing this and they really want to paint. We would like to do something for children to improve their psychological condition. Vitaly and I, when we paint, all problems disappear for us, so it would be interesting for us to do something for children, maybe a festival, so that they can create a picture themselves, paint a wall.
ARC: In general, I hear the situation of children’s art education is poor.
Olena: It is not available at the school level. In private schools, of course, children are taught art, but in public schools there is no such thing. Therefore, if such a program existed, it would be great.
ARC: Do you have any plans for this year?
Vitaliy: Survival plan. (laughs)
ARC: (laughs) Besides the obvious?
Vitaliy: The plan is to make a series of paintings. I would like to make more. We want to emphasize on quality also, so that people talk more about it, so that there are discussions.
ARC: Currently, a lot of Ukrainian art is militarized, and many cultural figures say that we should show different Ukrainian art, that we should not focus only on military themes and instead give space to other topics. Your works, I believe, exist on a kind of border. On the one hand, you depict military themes, such as Patron, and on the other, you deal with social themes that are as relevant in peace as in war, such as your firefighter mural.
Olena: Now, if the mural is not military themed, then some say that it is not the time to paint “flowers,” so to speak, now there is a war, flowers do not bring anything.
Vitaliy: And that’s why we want to make more paintings for children, because they have a lively reaction.
Olena: When the Patron was painted, the children would say, “Mom, it’s so cool!” Immediately recognized it. Admired it. Adults are more closed off, and the children’s reaction is real.
Vitaliy: The main thing for me is not to draw weapons, but to choose words, metaphors. We were in the Chernihiv region and the whole land there is mined. I have an idea to depict it, but I have not yet found a way to do it without depicting the mines. It is a difficult line not to show a rocket, a mine, but to talk about these problems, that children go and pick up what they think is a toy, but it is really a mine.
ARC: It is the burden of every artist to find the right symbols.
Vitaliy: Yes, I don’t want to depict weapons, but when you wake up from the fact that rockets are flying at you, it is difficult to refrain from saying everything you think directly. And then, people sit somewhere abroad and criticize, but when your only thought was how to hide yourself, your child… your opinions on that are completely different thoughts.
ARC: I personally think that there is a place for more optimistic art like yours now, and maybe soon there will be space for other emotions that you want to depict.
As the conversation came to a close we sat with the images of courageous soldiers, firefighters, Patron, and yes, even flowers on our minds. These images spread through Kyiv, Irpin, Bucha, Pryluky until finally reaching outside the borders of Ukraine. We envisioned the blue and yellow murals painting the country in hope.
This interview was translated by Oleksandra Yakubenko and edited by Valentine Sargent for clarity.