It is worth noting that the college (gardening technical school) was founded in 1931, just a year before the Holodomor in Ukraine, and, probably, was envisioned to strengthen the southern agricultural sector, improving the numbers of agricultural production.

The column of the Holodomors memorial complex, made from cast iron, revives the motives of the college columns. The material and the natural aging process reveal to the spectator the time flow with its bright and dark sides, creating the dialogue between the past and the present. Long since the solitary columns have been recording historical events. Today, they endure as memory symbols in different places across the globe.

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The plow. The image of the totalitarian state machine, the reference to that times and grain production. In technical terms, the plow is made up of metal and concrete details. The plow and the streamflow directions come up against the concrete walls with the information on the Holodomor in Melitopol and Ukraine.

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The idea originates from the witnesses’ stories about the street loading of dead bodies. If a mother or a father died leaving a small child, the latter was thrown alive on the wagon among the corpses and buried in the mass grave, covered with the earth. The child was moving for several days because of organic processes or the last physical efforts.

Instead of displaying a particular “visual” image, I chose to create a “state,” which differs for every spectator. The architects from the Replus bureau and I considered it crucial to develop peaceful comfort zones (the benches, the lightning, the greenery) where one would like to spend their time — idyll. The one “but” lies in the gradual movement of the well-trimmed and groomed lawn. The spectator does not notice it immediately. Only later on, they detect this inconspicuous, uncanny movement. It is not a conventional “monument,” it is a situation where the spectator is embodied in the memory.

I do not list the instances of the “images” this monument will generate. Here I would like to give a space for the spectator. It implies the same immersion effect as in the works of Oskar and Zofia Hansen. The presence of the passage is a reference to their practices.

The passage through the hill. While walking through it, we will be able to notice the movement of the ground at eye level. As the aperture is shaped like an arc, we cannot see the way out, we have to move on. The mass of the carved “route” became a barrier between the private and the public spaces — the area of the monument. Symbolically, we distance ourselves from the living to “listen” to the dead. On the other hand, it is the so-called shortcut, or the “desire path.” We can often see paths between the paved routes. When a person is in a hurry, they shorten the way and become a part of the monument running into it.

The static part of the monument will be made in the technique of rammed earth (compressed earth with concrete). The wall production technology requires ramming earth mixed with a small amount of concrete layer by layer into the formwork. Something similar occurs during the natural process when everything transforms into a chornozem. To my mind, in symbolical and visual terms, this technology suits the subject. The ground will be lifted with the large tires, inflated and deflated by the compressor under the thickness of the soil.

The artist — Pavlo Kovach

The architects — Replus bureau

Animation — Ivan Oleksiak

Continuity of commemorative tradition. During the last 30 years in Ukraine a recognizable commemorative language was formed and therefore, to preserve this continuity, we have included into our project one of the most recognizable Holodomor symbols — ears of wheat. This symbol was re-contextualised and adapted to contemporary commemorative practices. Green growing wheat symbolizes the fact that even despite the tragic losses Ukrainians had survived and life goes on.

Inclusive symbol of tragedy that does not concentrate on purely rural symbols. Traditionally, memorials to the Holodomor victims use rural and/or religious symbols that exclude other social groups and make it harder for them to identify with the Holodomor tragedy as a part of common memory. However, tables are a universal symbol, they can be found in every home, regardless of geographic location, religious beliefs, and ethnicity. A table that is based in the center of the memorial is deformed in a way which makes it not functional anymore, which is a reference to the traumatic past.

“Never again”. Wheat and fruit trees that grow in the park around the memorial create a symbolic presence of an additional food source in the city space as a reminder that such tragedies should never repeat. Green plants create a welcoming and friendly space for the visitors in the tradition of contemporary urban gardens.

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Benches are placed chaotically over the site. In a transparent yellow monolith, a small photo of the Kyrychenkos stands in one of the park corners and seems to be levitating there. The experience of the family and its manifestation through photography become an indisputable testimony to the Holodomor, accessible to the public. The picture is both a document and a symbol.However, the site remains in the present and does not force visitors to delve into the past involuntarily. The space scenario does not accentuate the object with the photo but balances it with the trees, the benches for rest, and the visitors themselves.

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