Anna Łazar

– How are you doing today?
– I’m holding up like a kitchen cabinet from Borodianka.

Yelizaveta Servatynskaya took an unusual photo in Borodianka near Kyiv liberated from Russian occupation on April 6, 2022. On the wall of the destroyed building, which had once been an interior wall but had become an exterior wall as a result of the destruction, held a kitchen cabinet, while a ceramic rooster stood steadfastly on the cabinet.

This rooster was produced at the Vasylkovo Majolica Plant, which was established in the late 1920s., and which is famous for its collaboration with prominent Ukrainian artists, starting with the Ukrainian avant-garde working with folk artists. The rooster was created in the 1960s, and was most likely designed by Valery Protoriev.

On April 11, 2022, Ukrainian contemporary artist Lera Polyanskova, having seen Volodymyr Zelenskiy accompanied by Boris Johnson in the Kyiv center, spontaneously gave the leaders each a rooster, which, in addition to its Borodian context, is also a symbol of strength, vigilance, victory over darkness, the beginning of a new day. She had several of these roosters, as she bought them for her Polish friends. The third rooster Lera brought to me in Wolomin. From there, it goes to Lublin for auction. Starting price 999 Euro. Funds raised at the auction go to the foundation Magiczne Karpaty and Pogon Ruska.

Anna Łazar