While helping to install girls spoke about beauty, stars, planets, galaxies and meanings. Kind thanks to Lena, Jana, Dina, Klava, Anna and many other girls.As well as to Andrey, Elena, Lidiya, Alexandr and other pedagogues.
Together with girls, pedagogues, and facility workers, we first installed new works in the former pool house, whose abandoned basin is now reused, due to constant blackouts, as a reservoir for emergency water storage. Here I first heard about beauty. My wife and I were deeply moved by the kind and warm response.
Ongoing rocket or drone alarms from Russian shelling disrupt the life of the asylum several times a day: when the sound howls, children start to clothe themselves; some are helped by nurses. Collected and guided by pedagogues, we all move to the bomb shelters under the buildings.
The most annoying are the night alarms, when children are torn out of bed, some lamenting and refusing to go anywhere.
The next smaller animistic installation was created above the stage under the light shelter of the summer open-air theater. Slightly moving in the cold January wind, it attracted the girls from afar by its strangeness and bright color; here discussions started about what kind of animal it could be.
And again, alarms.
In the next days, the girls came more often, directly asking questions and making selfies. Further installations were made in two working rooms where camouflage shelters were produced. “Here we save lives,” the girls explained to us. Also here I was told that new stars and planets had appeared above the nets. It gave a quiet sense of belonging, not to be a stranger from the outer cruel world, but to be accepted as part of a team that knows what to do.
Alarms.
Further, we moved to the theater and performance hall, where another stage installation was made for the rehearsal of the upcoming show. It was great to see how two adult professionals, Elena and Alexander, discussed the performance with the girls.
Alarms.
We placed two floating bioisms in the small entrance hall.
Alarms.
Another larger installation was composed in a household classroom, where, without interrupting the work, Lydia quietly explained to us the teaching, needs, and girls’ work. Often the girls laughed at her story. When the work was finished, she declared the classroom a museum and prohibited cooking lessons (a joke).
Alarms.
Often, different furry cats entered the classrooms, for which small passages had been left everywhere. Many of them are called by the girls’ names. Some were called to pose in hand with artwork for the camera. When explosions were heard somewhere, the cats ran away to find their own shelters.
Alarms.
Finally, while being in the bomb shelters, we decided to place a few smaller bioisms there as well. The shelters are concrete-equipped basements. Yes, very narrow, with two-story beds for night alarms, so children can sleep there, placed in each room. Tiny floating creatures, softly glowing in gentle pink hues, slowly moved in the circulated air, a small hope for peace and kindness.
