HOPE. Sculpture for peace and freedom
New sculpture reveiled June 2024:
Internationally renowned artist Sergei Sviatchenko and the Ukrainian sculptor Egor Zigura stand behind the sculpture which was unveiled June 28 in the Sculpture Park at the Art Center Silkeborg Bad. The sculpture is to give and symbolize hope for Ukraine and for all other places with conflict.
It is 260 cm high and 420 cm long, the bronze sculpture that the Danish-Ukrainian visual artist and architect Sergei Sviatchenko from Viborg has created together with the Ukrainian sculptor, Egor Zigura. The name of the work is HOPE, and it is shaped like a dove with a leaf in its beak.
"HOPE is a dove which, in its dynamics and rhythm, moves with a peaceful leaf in its beak. It is a symbol of the future that we will all be a part of. And this is exactly how I draw it at the beginning of March 2022 after a month of war and my shock at what happened in Ukraine”.
This is what Sergei Sviatchenko, an internationally recognized artist, who settled and has lived in Denmark for 34 years, but was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, tells us.
The project was made possible on the basis of generous support from Danish ‘Jyske Bank's Almennyttige Foundation’ and the French company ‘Cartier’, so it became possible to cast the sculpture in bronze. In addition, many individuals supported the process, which was initiated more than 2 years ago. The overall plan is to produce three identical works, of which the first sculpture has now been erected in Silkeborg, the next in Brussels and the third in Kyiv, provided the vision is fully realized.
Alongside the sculpture project, Sviatchenko has created another collage work as a print on aluminum with the title "Kharkiv. Riders of Hope". This will also be on show at the unveiling of HOPE, where it is temporarily set up. Here he interprets Picasso's famous work Guernica from 1937. He transfers the historical war tragedy in the Spanish city to Ukrainian Kharkiv and about his meeting with Picasso's Guernica, says the Danish-Ukrainian artist:
”I found the most scary parallels that I responded to as an artist. The tragedy is repeating itself in our days, not in Spain, but in the city where I was born and raised. In the composition, my face appears as a three-year-old boy”.
In addition to conveying his difficult feelings in pictorial form, Sviatchenko has also written a poem about the tragedy of his city and his country:
We lost EVERYTHING in one minute
And only the sky above
We will take it with us
And we will live with it
For a long time until then
While the sun with its rays
Write on it
FAITH HOPE LOVE
The realisation of the sculpture was mad possible with generous support from Jyske Banks Almennyttige Fond, the inauguration was supported by Cartier. The Art Centre Silkeborg Bad coordinated the project and provided a base for HOPE. Thanks also to AFUKA - the French-Ukrainian organization in Nice, Abramovych Foundation in Kyiv, Profilsport, Expopartner, Henrik Hegelund, Skovgaard Museum in Viborg, Christian’s Anlæg, L’Officiel Ukraine, etc.