This artwork by the “Three Practices of Realism” art collective is based on the memory of Oleksandr Len (participant of the art collective) about trees on the front line. A drawing on paper, a text, and a smell constitute a spatial installation that, according to the concept of the art collective, should bring viewers closer to the warfare experience on the front line.

“This is the smell of a burning city, cars, houses, and trees. This is the smell of gunpowder from exploding shells, ploughed earth, soot and smoke, and dust from concrete and bricks torn by shells. When you breathe it all the time, the feeling of disgust from the stench is dulled, and it becomes commonplace. This smell is always with you, wherever you are in the basement, in the trench, in the house, or in the position. It is everywhere. I tried to seek for the nature of this smell, although, in fact, this smell can only be felt there.”
Alexander Len

“Becoming a Tree” was created at the residence “When was the story interrupted?”, which lasted from December 26, 2022, to January 8, 2023, at the Khata-Maysternya (Babyn village, Kosiv district, Ivano-Frankivsk region), and was exhibited for the first time at the “Behind the Tree is a Tree” exhibition in the Asortymentna Kimnata gallery (Ivano-Frankivsk).

The scent was created in collaboration with olfactory artist Arianna Khmelniuk (Oakland, USA) and perfumer Oleksandr Kuzminetskyi (Kyiv, Ukraine). Arianna Khmelniuk: development of the smell formula. Oleksandr Kuzminetskyi: reproduction.

Curators: Dmytro Chepurnyi, Anton Usanov
Text: Dmytro Chepurnyi
Photo: Olesya Saienko