Years

twelve-channel video installation, steel sheets, size 10x6x2.50 m, video 12 hours

realized: 15.11.2025–01.03.2026, Associazione Culturale Dello Scompiglio, in Lucca, Italy

Open Group (Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach and Anton Varga)

curator: Angel Moya Garcia

In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and supported the armed uprising in the Donbas, initiating a period of low-intensity conflict and eight years of mounting tension with Ukraine and the West. In February 2022, Moscow launched a full-scale invasion, initially aiming to capture Kyiv. The attack was repelled, forcing the Russian army to concentrate its operations mainly in the east and south of the country. Over the course of 2022, Ukraine regained significant territories, but by 2023 the war had turned into a war of attrition, marked by static frontlines, massive losses, and an increasing use of drones and artillery. Russia sought to consolidate its control over the Donbas, while Kyiv launched counteroffensives with Western military and economic support, achieving only limited progress. In 2024, the conflict further hardened, with both Russian and Ukrainian attacks penetrating deep into each other’s territories, while the international community oscillated between long-term support for Kyiv and attempts at mediation. Today, in 2025, the war remains open and uncertain, with no clear prospect of resolution.

According to the most recent data from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), released through the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU), any number of casualties and injuries is extremely approximate, sensitive, and uncertain. The United Nations emphasizes that the actual number is likely significantly higher than any estimate, report, narrative, or statistic, as many deaths and injuries in occupied or heavily contested areas cannot be independently verified. The United Nations does not provide official estimates of military losses, either Ukrainian or Russian, due to the lack of reliable channels for independent verification. This information is derived from official reports by the OHCHR and the HRMMU, which remain among the most internationally recognized and methodologically transparent sources.

In the installation Years, projections of dates engraved on gravestones expand into space, transforming the passage of time into a slow flow of light that moves across the headstones. This luminous rhythm not only marks the passingof years but also evokes the end of relationships torn apart by war, the fragility of memory, and its stubborn persistence. The exhibition unfolds as a constellation of video works occupying the exhibition space, translating the devastation of war into a tangible, sensorial form, dissolving the abstract coldness of numbers to restore to the viewer the raw immediacy of loss—something that cannot be reduced to statistics. These works speak not only of conflict, but also of the persistence of memory, of presences hovering in space and traversing its silence like echoes of past lives.

Behind each date in the videos, beats a real human connection, creating a tree of stories that refuse to disappear. This durational exploration begins in 2014 with Serhiy Tabala, known as “Sever” (1995-2014), a participant in the Maidan who joined the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps at the start of the war. And from there, the tree of friendship and camaraderie, united by the sequence of eventual deaths, just grows forward, revealing the nature of war and sacrifice. In the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, Serhiy Tabala met Dmytro Kolesnikov “Pravyi” (1995-2015), also a volunteer and defender of Donetsk Airport. Dmytro was acquainted with Vasyl Slipak “Mif” (1974-2016), a world-renowned opera singer who joined the ranks of the defense at the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Vasyl Slipak fought alongside mortar operator Dmytro Sumskyi, known as “Shaman” (1974-2017), who in turn fought alongside Andrii Kryvych, known as “Dilly” (1999-2018), a volunteer with the Sapsan tactical group. Andriy was acquainted with Yaroslava Nikonenko “Hera” (1983-2019), a sniper in the Knights of the Winter Campaign brigade. Yaroslava was acquainted with Andriy Gerhert “Cherven” (1978-2020), commander of the Aratta battalion, who had served with volunteer Roman Kubyshkin “Sanych” (1974-2021) since the beginning of the war. Roman Kubyshkin fought alongside Roman Kosenko “Yashka” (1986-2022), a participant in the Maidan and a fighter inthe Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, later an officer in the Special Operations Forces. Roman Kosenko fought alongside and was friends with Dmytro Kotsyubailo, aka “Da Vinci” (1995-2023), a Hero of Ukraine, participant in the Maidan, and commander of the volunteer unit “ Da Vinci Wolves” Dmytro Kotsyubailo fought from the beginning of the war and was acquainted with Maksym Kryvtsov “Dali” (1990-2024), Hero of Ukraine (posthumously), poet, photographer, and public figure. Maksym “Dali,” in turn, was acquainted with Taras Shpuk “Cherep” (1991-2025), a participant in the Maidan, a special forces scout who died in the fall of 2025.

In this context, the collective’s work manifests as an act of testimony—a gesture that, by preserving what war seeks to erase, opens a space for denunciation, awareness, and the processing of loss.

Text by – Angel Moya Garcia

Photo by – Leonardo Morfini