'The Motherland Isn't Calling': Russian Opposition Artists Resist Ukraine War

"When the power is on, Papa writes, 'We are fine, except it’s 10 below zero here. Valya has thought up chopping nuts into soup, it’s very nutritious. How are you? Preparing for Purim?'"

Purim is a Jewish holiday celebrated in springtime.

"I never realized there are so many tears inside me.
this pain cannot be ignored.
the war covered us with a black blanket and nests inside me for many days. And I lose words, lose actions, lose love.
but it’s necessary to take action despite all.
the darkness is thick, but let the light win.

no to violence.
no to dehumanization.
no to war.
no to war.
no to war!"

"This piece on the generation gap problem, propaganda, and emigration is based on the old 'Are ya winning, son?' meme with a father trying to show interest in his gamer son. But in this case, the roles have been reversed, and the gap of misunderstanding between generations has reached its maximum. Mesmerized by a TV screen, a father isn’t noticing or doesn’t want to notice that his son has packed his stuff and is leaving home."

"In Russia, ballet has long been a source of national pride, something that we are incomparably good at. Swan Lake, which was broadcast on all television channels during the August Coup in 1991, also became a symbol of change, of not-quite-voluntary transfer of power. Plus, artists were always inspired by the image of Salome who received the head of John the Baptist. The beheading of Holofernes by Judith (even if she wasn't a dancer) is another classic theme which often appears in art. The ballet dancer dressed as the White Swan, with Putin's head cut off, is a variation on this classic story and the embodiment of our hopes and aspirations."

"I’m not crying. I’m working.
Never in my life have I worked so much.
I need to blow my nose now."

"This work was done after Bucha. During the war, everyday objects take on a different meaning."

"EOD officer, carrying an encrypted message *** *****
By starting the *** with Ukraine, the Russian government detonated the bomb under its own feet."

"I live in Israel, and most of my Russian-language life takes place online. This is the space where my friends, employers, and co-authors are. For two weeks, I couldn't draw, I could only follow the news. This is what the drawing entitled 'What?' is about. Then I came to, and I knew I needed to get back to work, which is when I realized that I don't have to draw anymore; the project doesn't exist any longer, my colleagues are now a 'statistical error,' prisoners, and refugees."

St. Petersburg

”Topographical Orientation; or, The Strategy and Tactics of a Celestial Peace Mission”

"Praematerna is an independent art faction that emerged as a counterweight to militarist pathos, which inevitably leads to human casualties. It was established to remind everybody that this time, the Motherland isn't calling.
A mother does not call to kill the innocent.
A mother does not call to die for the interests of others.
A mother gives life and looks after the well-being of her children."

"I made this piece during the first days of the war while I was traveling around Estonia. Two sisters are wearing national costumes, Russia is welcoming Ukraine with a traditional round bread, which is burnt and looks like a bomb; this is the image of the 'Russian world' how it came together in my mind. I printed it out as a street-art sticker. I put the stickers on the walls all around Tartu — it is safe to do so there, they even have separate 'stickerable' areas in the city where no one would try to remove or paint them over. Then I came back to Russia, and I stayed in St. Petersburg for a week. In each district, you come across the propagandist info-stands with the letter 'Z' and hashtag 'we don't abandon our own.' I tried to cover them up with my stickers, but they would only stay there for a day at best: in St. Petersburg, the local authorities have always been hostile to street art, and now even more so. I will put my stickers in those places where people don't fight against street art; I know there are still cities like that in Russia."

"I started drawing the victims on the second day of the war, one portrait a day, so that the process does not become mechanical. I search Facebook for the words 'загинув' and 'загинула,' 'died' in Ukrainian, and then I look for more information on the names. Most often there are two photos at best, and I’ve made one portrait from a photo of a dead body, so mostly, the likeness is elusive, but I’m trying to achieve a certain clarity of the impression I get from a person's face. I do not hope to understand more.

The hashtag #следуетпомнитьтерминcollateraldamage means 'one should remember the term collateral damage.' It's a quote from the press conference of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, 'I express my condolences for the dead children, but the Russian Armed Forces use high-precision weapons. And one should remember the term collateral damage'."

"The slogan 'Great faceless Russian people' was born during preparations for an anti-war protest in Yerevan, as we discussed not wanting our faces to be photographed; what if there were pro-Russian forces there? On the one hand, this statement is about the culture, how great and sublime it is, especially as presented by the propagandistic rhetoric; on the other hand, it’s about the lack of culture, because the totalitarian system grinds it down. It no longer has a face, and 'greatness' turns into a pity for the dehumanized, frightened, and confused mass of lone individuals."

Moscow

"The Party of the Dead is a political and artistic project launched in 2017 in St. Petersburg. On Feb. 22, 2022, after the Russian recognition of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics’ 'independence' and on the eve of the war, the Party held an anti-war action at the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery — a place desecrated by Vladimir Putin's visit just prior to that — against the unscrupulous politics of memory that uses the dead to justify military aggression. On March 7, by the end of the second week of the war, the Party of the Dead held a Z200 action on the necropolitics of Putinism: hushing up the losses among the Russian military, lies about not using conscripts in the 'special military operation,' as well as appalling proclamations from TV screens to the mothers that their children are 'fakes,' while the bodies of the dead are simply left to rot in a foreign land, as if they did not exist at all."