An exhibition of nine Ukrainian poster artists, The Womanly Face of War by Sunseed Art, opened at the French House in Mexico City. Each of the posters tells the stories of Ukrainian women during the war, as well as the stories of the artists themselves.
“War does not have a woman’s face,” said Svetlana Aleksievich, a Nobel laureate from Belarus. We cannot agree with her, because every day we see many women’s faces in this war. These are women soldiers, volunteers, mothers who take care of their children and families, and women who are waiting for their husbands, sons, brothers, and daughters to come back from the war. These are women who live their daily routine between shelling, blackouts, and also support others and believe in the Victory,” commented Olesya Drashkaba, curator of the exhibition, Ukrainian artist and co-founder of Sunseed Art. – “It was very important for us to tell about our war in Mexico through the art and stories of our women, because, on the one hand, it is a distant country that is strongly influenced by Russian propaganda, and on the other hand, it is a country with powerful women’s movements and a great artistic history. I am very grateful to our partners – the Ukrainian Embassy in Mexico, the French Cultural Center in Mexico City, the Ukrainian Institute, the Renaissance Foundation and Resilient Ukraine. I believe that an exhibition like The Womanly Face of War will provide us with such important reflections and an opportunity for the Mexican audience to feel understanding, empathy and solidarity.”
The exhibition was opened by the EU Ambassador to Mexico, Mr. Jerome Auden, and the Ambassador of Ukraine to Mexico, Oksana Dramaretska.
Opening the exhibition, Gauthier Mignot said that “the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a bit abstract for the Mexican and Latin American public, so artists’ expressions of the daily reality they live and how they react to this war creates a more human side that can move and speak to the Mexican public more than geopolitical discussions.”
“At the beginning of the third year of full-scale Russian aggression, when hundreds of Ukrainian cultural figures – poets, writers, artists, intellectuals – are defending the freedom to create and live in Ukraine with arms in their hands, defending the very possibility for Ukrainians to be free, often sacrificing their lives, it is very important that the voices of Ukrainian artists are represented in all corners of the planet. The mission of presenting these voices through the exhibition “The Female Face of War” in Mexico is a mission to build bridges of solidarity with a global audience through a common rethinking of the importance of freedom for women’s fulfillment, and the limitations and scars that war brings to women’s lives, a call for solidarity with people around the world, with women in Mexico, because everyone who values freedom must choose to stand with Ukraine today and help Ukraine’s victory,” commented Natalia Popovych, co-founder of Resilient Ukraine and Sunseed Art.
