The Ukrainian Museum of Canada in Saskatoon has a new exhibit, showcasing the harsh realities and horrors of war.
Doors: Through the Horror of War is a display of doors from around Ukraine, all of which have been damaged or destroyed by the war.
The exhibit was created by Ukrainian artist Ruslan Kurt.
“(He) was living outside of Ukraine when the war started,” Ukrainian Museum of Canada executive director Jen Budney said. “He’s from Melitopol, which is a city now fully occupied by Russians, and he decided he wanted to raise awareness of the war in Canada.”
Kurt hoped to give audiences the perspective that the war knocked on the door of every Ukrainian. And not only their doors at home, but at school and work too.
“We’ve got doors from Ukrainian language classrooms from schools, there’s doors from hospitals and child-care centres and things like that,” Budney said as she walked through the exhibit.
“These doors have all been hit by shrapnel, or burned and they still smell like smoke and fire.”
When asked about why the exhibit was brought to Canada, Budney said she hopes it gives Canadians a tiny sense of what Ukrainians have dealt with over the last year.
“These are genuine artifacts from the war, and now more than a year has gone by, we saw it as a really important job to keep the war in people’s imaginations, because Ukraine still needs Canada’s support,” Budney said.
The gallery began in Toronto before making its way across Canada.
The exhibit is scheduled to stay in Saskatoon until the end of the month, but Budney is working to extend its stay into May.