Interactive Exhibition "WHY? Animal Stories from War"

"The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life... It is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena... On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives here..."
- Carl Edward Sagan

Ukraine is swept by war right now. The war, which is unbelievable in the 21st century. The war, threatening the survival of our world. Unspeakable atrocities affected everyone. Millions of lives of Ukrainians and countless wild animals and pets were turned into disaster.

Animals die under shelling in lots of zoos, are being maimed at the bombed farms or burned alive in stables. No one knows how many of them are starving or dying of thirst, left to fend for themselves in forests and cities or become prey to savage military men in uniforms.

Poor creatures can neither speak for themselves, nor write, nor defend themselves in any way. They can only look at us waiting for help. Waiting for their chance to survive. Are we able to see and hear their cry? The exhibition highlights that issue.

Interactive Exhibition "Why? Animal Stories from the War" is guiding the viewer to the existential thoughts about life on the Earth. What are the humanity’s common values? What kind of the world are we creating? What is the news broadcasted? Can we change the news background in our lives?

There are 18 paintings (72*72 cm; canvas, acrylic). The background of all pictures is the news from different countries about the war in Ukraine. On the news background the pictured animals have suffered or died.

All the animals are looking at the viewer with a dumb question "Why?" "Why did this happen to me? What’s going on?"

All paintings are in bright colored frames (100*100 cm), symbolizing the colorfulness and diversity of life forms. There are 18 black tablets among the canvases featuring the contrast with colorful frames. All the tablets are posing question "Why?" in different languages, some of them with quotes from Carl Sagan about Pale Blue Dote (that's how our planet was called in a picture taken from a distance of 6 billion km)

Viewers can see short animal stories using the QR code on the picture frames

To enhance the emotional effect, visitors are invited to come to our pet friendly exhibition with their pets, as a symbolic support to our planet mates coexisting all over the world.