Voices of Ukraine

03.2014
Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine

Postcards from Maidan is an art initiative that helps facilitate the psychological rehabilitation and physical recovery of patients. Artists visit the wounded and use drawings as a storytelling mechanism of Maidan. The wounded are later presented with the drawings. This is the story of one Maidan protester. This is story #12.

Story #12. Kozak Leonid (Oleh Borysovych), Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine

“Kozaks [Cossacks] are the body and blood of the Ukrainian people. We are not afraid of losing [our] heads for the sake of the freedom and happiness of Ukraine. We will always be with our people. A healthy common sense will always prevail.

I arrived [on Maidan] on December 5, 2013. When I got ill, I went home. And now, unfortunately, I am at the hospital. Afterwards, I will go to Kaniv [Cherkasy Oblast] for the Kozak Council.

One day, we will take pride in the fact that we had Maidan. That we are of the Kozak nation.

Kyivans complain, saying that we feed the homeless and litter. But we fed the homeless, told them what to do and they feel like human beings now.

“The Kozak’s hat safeguards the Kozak’s honor.”

Artist Vita Kalmutska talked with Kozak Leonid at Oleskandrivska hospital. As a gift, Vita created the protester’s portrait on site.

Presentation of the Kozak’s story by Vita Kalmutska:

“Kozak Leonid was on Hrushevskyi Street during the clashes in February [of 2014]. Under the grenade fire, [people] began to retreat from the battleground. He [Leonid] fell down and saw a Kozak hat nearby, he thought it was his. But when he came around to it, he realized that his hat was on [his] unscathed head, so he put away a stranger’s hat close to his heart. By the campfire, Dmytro, a brother-in-arms came up to him and complained that he had lost his hat, and that some Muscovite would wear it now. Kozak Leonid took out Dmytro’s invaluable treasure-hat.”

Source: postcardsfrommaidan.org
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Postcards from Maidan is an art initiative that helps bring support through truthful images of Ukrainian protests in different regions of the country, and also tells the stories of people who suffered during events on Maidan this winter in Kyiv.

The project consists of two elements:

#postcards from maidan
The Postcards Project contains a series of cards based on works of contemporary artists. Artists who participated in protests on Maidan create works reflecting on the events and as a message to fellow citizens. These cards may serve as support and a means to bring the spirit of protest to one’s relatives and friends in any part of Ukraine or the world. They are distributed on Maidan and available to everyone for free download in a format suitable for printing.

#stories from maidan
In The Stories Project, contemporary artists visit hospitals, talk to people [protesters/activists] and work on an artistic embodiment of their stories from Maidan. Activists receive these works as gifts by which to remember the events. This project is documented; the stories may later be used by various media. Through social networks, with the help of journalists, volunteers and the project’s website, organizers of this project help to recover lost contacts and enable protesters to learn about each other.

Postcards from Maidan was founded by Kadygrob_Taylor Platform for Contemporary Art, an independent non-profit.  Source: http://postcardsfrommaidan.org/about