„I was so hungry that I ate my friend's toy“ -
Ilia, 6 years old. Mariupol, Ukraine, 2022“.
Yona, 2022
size 135 x 200 cm, oil on canvas
"And then he remembered, he remembered even that which would be better not to remember. How he hid in the basements from the bombing. How afraid he was to ask strangers to go to the toilet. How he was so hungry that he ate another boy's toy. He even knew that his mother was no more. He said this simply: „My mother went to the bridge, the bridge was blown up, she died."
“Ilia says: my parents died, but how will I be here on earth now alone? I explained to him that this is war, a cruel war. And this happens, unfortunately,” says Maria. “But I told him: now you are not alone. We took you and we will take care of you. We will love you. We will be your family - but only if you want it. We can be your mom and dad. Because mom and dad are now yours in heaven. They are looking at you. They are happy for you. And he said: “Good!” And he agreed that we should be mom and dad.”
The story told by Maria about Ilia from Mariupol,
Ukraine, 2022
“Geran”,
Yona Tukuser, 2023
The installation “Geran” showcases a fragment of a russian drone named “Geran”, which attacked a grain at a Danube port in Ukraine in 2023.
The installation is the link between the Holodomor, when grain was requisitioned on the orders of Soviet governments, and the current war, in which grain is scorched by Russian missile and drone attacks.