“The Fabric of Time” is an installation made from natural linen, interwoven with voices and touches of different centuries. At its core is a fragment from the ancient Radziwiłł Chronicle of the 11th century: an account of the time when Kyiv was threatened by a Pecheneg attack, but Prince Yaroslav gathered his forces, defeated the enemy, and restored peace. In the context of today’s war, this episode takes on new meaning — as a testimony to strength and the inherited ability to defend, passed down through generations.
The fabric also carries personal texts — excerpts from the correspondence between artists Olga Morozova and Phoebe Walsh during the first months of the full-scale invasion, as well as fragments from the World War I diary of British soldier George Marr. These records, made over a century ago, resonate with the experience of the present, as if extending a hand of memory across time.
The installation is adorned with dried flowers sent from the frontline by Volodymyr Petrashek — Ukrainian art historian, associate professor at the Department of Art Studies of the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, and editor-in-chief of the magazine Fine Art, who now serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, yet continues to publish the journal. His gesture forms a bridge between the battlefield and the field of art, between daily resistance and the preservation of beauty.
The installation will be presented on the grounds of Saint Sophia of Kyiv, a sacred space that has held memory, silence, and spiritual resilience since the 11th century. Here, the “fabric of time” brings together personal memory and collective history, voices of the past and present — in a touch, a word, a flower preserved.