GRANTEE
The heroines of the project are real women, residents of the Ukrainian village of Horenka, Buchansky District. In March 2022, the village was on the front line and suffered from constant shelling. According to the UN, as a result of Russian aggression, 77% of the buildings in Horenka were destroyed. The liberation of Kyiv Oblast gave an impetus to the reconstruction of the village and the restoration of social ties in the community, but the war continued. Striving to be useful members of the community, the women of Horenka organized the volunteer group Horenski Mavky. They have different ages, different professions, and different social statuses, but they are united by the desire to do something important together.
Even the blackout of the winter of 2022-2023 did not prevent them — under the constant threat of rocket attacks, by candlelight, in the cold, the weaving of camouflage products continued. And now women continue to make camouflage nets and «kikimory» — camouflage clothing for snipers and scouts, which makes the military hardly visible and saves lives. There is a constant need for such means, they go to the front as quickly as possible. Volunteers are convinced that camouflage products, woven with love and faith, have the power of charms.
In times of the most difficult trials, the people turn to their roots, to the common ground that has shaped their national identity for thousands of years. And today Ukrainian mythology has come in handy along with other components of culture. The folkloric character of mavka is one of the most famous. An ambivalent figure on the border between the worlds of the living and the dead, in recent times mavka — especially thanks to Lesya Ukrainka’s Forest Song — has become a symbol of victorious femininity, ardent self-sacrificing love. It is this aspect that comes to the fore in Alyona Grom’s photo project. In every photo, female virtues are revealed: beauty, soft power, connection with nature, love, care for family, sincerity, unity with friends. The heroines of the photo project do not destroy, do not seek revenge for destroyed homes and lives — they protect the present, build a future for new generations on their land. This future must be defended in war, and mavka, a Ukrainian woman, stands by her soldiers.
This project resonates with Andy Warhol’s famous project Camouflage (1986), where the contrast between the impersonality of camouflage and the bright individuality of the portrait was used. The camouflage motif also appeared in the clothes that Andy Warhol created in collaboration with fashion designer Stephen Sprouse. Camouflage as an abstract pattern offers a number of interpretations: from stealth to courage, from the beauty of an idyllic landscape to the nervous tension of a sniper. Such an allusion shows the heroines of the project in their vulnerability and at the same time as protectors and guardians, whose strength is nature itself.