The city of Kharkiv, situated between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian oriented territories, differs from other cities in that both positions are visible on the city's walls with equal intensity. Writings in defence of Ukrainian integrity, calls for separatism, and support for the self-proclaimed republics – these statements criss-cross and overlap, some disappearing while others appear. The statements of both sides of the conflict overlap and contradict each other, while the message deforms and becomes lost.
This is the war of inscriptions. We observed this phenomenon for a long time, analysing it. This war of inscriptions mostly takes place away from the city centre, on the city’s periphery or so-called factory outskirts. They appear more regularly during the revolution and intense periods of the war, and less frequently during calmer periods. As for the message, most of the inscriptions echo popular topics from mainstream and social media. And it's raising questions regarding their meaningfulness. So we decided to join the public conversation about the war using words about its consequences in the other dimension, a private one.
These are the words of a mother who lost her son at war. It’s an intimate emotional experience that is radically different from previous ones. They are out of place in the public space. They are deriving from the private sphere, and their emotional expressiveness provokes another way of understanding the war of inscriptions, just like the war as a whole.