Chronicles of Maidan 2013-2014 – Beyond Maidan, the Winds Howl A4, Graphics, Gouache, Ink. 2019 20х30 "Beyond Maidan, the Winds Howl" Beyond Maidan—further... There, life goes on, there is routine... There is only you and life... You and the rest of the world. I came to Maidan, and each day, I took fewer and fewer photographs. It twisted and broke me, turned me inside out, and then threw me back into life beyond its boundaries. I realized—it had begun. A rebirth? But of whom, of what, why, and for what kind of future? A future that forces people to tear themselves out of their bodies, their souls, their present. How was it supposed to be? How could it have been? And how did it happen that we stopped valuing what is most precious and fell to the ground... I stopped wearing my camera around my neck. I stopped spending nights on Maidan. I stopped living in Maidan, and that was when everything and everyone emerged. Even the most bizarre self-interests surfaced, the strangest phantoms and the most terrifying thoughts. Why can’t I do what used to bring me joy? Why don’t I want to do what could bring me a good income and perhaps, finally, recognition? Why, in the most critical, the most "profitable" moment, did I step aside and simply start reading people… Why does it happen that others cry, and I watch? Others laugh, and I watch. Others die, and I watch. Others possess, and I watch. I kept watching, watching, watching—until I reached complete emptiness... And when others began—I stopped. The first killings of peaceful civilians who rose against Russian authority in Ukraine forced me to cease my journalistic activities. I replaced my camera with paint. 2013-2014