Artists Zhanna Kadyrova and Denis Ruban spent two weeks in the basement of their home, hiding from missile strikes and Diversionary Intelligence Groups of occupiers which at that time flooded the suburbs of Kyiv.

When the danger subsided a little, they decided to evacuate to the west of Ukraine. Residents of one of the Transcarpathian villages sheltered them in a picturesque house on a hillside, near the river.

Doing a job that you know and love for the benefit of Ukraine is the best that an artist can offer in the circumstances of war. This is how the “Palianytsia” project was born – a series of objects made of stones carved by a mountain river.

Zhanna sells them to philanthropists and galleries, and with the money she gets, she buys bulletproof vests, walkie-talkies, thermal imagers and other things our soldiers need.

Before sending her “palianytsias” to Venice for the Biennale, Zhanna organizes an exhibition in the village where she now lives, so that the people who gave her shelter would be the first to see her art.