Luis Ortega I Córdoba (EFE) -Cathedral, “Peace in our hands”, a 14-meter-high mural that sends a message to the world of union for the end of the war.
“The mural is called ‘Peace in our hands’ and it shows a mother and a son, which symbolizes that all people must take care of others and that is in our hands, it is our victory,” the artist Olga explained to EFE. Korobkova, who recalls that art “can touch many hearts and often speaks for itself.”
Mikhail and Olga arrived in Córdoba a month ago from Kiev and, far from showing a feeling of “fleeing” from the bombs that fall every day in their country, they want to send a message to the world of reality, that in Ukraine there are “people who They have been at war for a year and a half” and that it should “end as soon as possible”.
“For us, this trip has been quite important, since it is not just about leaving our country as if to flee, but to show the whole world that we are not only artists, but also people living in a war”, Olga emphasizes.
Ukraine cries, but also lives
A Ukrainian society that “is not only crying, or that does not go out, and that does not live”, but that are “happy people, who want to live life”, Olga points out to explain the bright colors of the mural, “torn” in its extremes by the “black of each bomb”. “Ukraine is full of color and life,” says the artist.
The artists talk almost daily with their family and friends who tell them about the situation. In recent days “they are bombing every hour at night,” denounces Olga, who acknowledges that it is “difficult” to abstract from that reality despite being in a city like Córdoba, which has just closed its May Festival.
“We really like the city, its joy, its passion, its people”, says Olga with a smile, and above all its “culture”.
The mural is located on the façade of a building ceded to the Artdecor Foundation in which it is presumed that the 15th century Customs House was used by the Catholic Monarchs and which is located on the banks of the Guadalquivir river, in the historic center from Córdoba and very close to the Mosque-Cathedral, a World Heritage Site.
Córdoba, city of ideas
An “impressive” setting, according to the proud account of EFE by the musician Fernando Vacas, president of the Artdecor Foundation of Córdoba, which grants the muralist project of Ukrainian artists and which is part of the “Córdoba, city of ideas” project.
“I personally had already had a very busy year with this issue and I didn’t know how to help, especially when I saw that there were our colleagues, artists, who were there having a hard time.” And hence the impulse and “enormous effort” to achieve this “mural for peace” and in a “mythical place of Córdoba, very visited and visitable,” Vacas emphasizes.
“The people of Córdoba have a lot to do with culture and art, to unite cultures and ethnic groups and people,” says the musician, who states that “art unites and war destroys.”
Vacas explains that it is a “very thoughtful work” and it has been made “in several pieces and is removable and can be carried to other spaces”, so that, despite being “a gift” for Córdoba, for the artists it would be a I “dream” to take him to Kiev when the war ends “soon”, as he wishes.
Hope for the end of the war
The mural is made of a “special material that breathes and allows light to pass through and the view from within”, making it a “work that will last” and “a transfer, a gift” for the city of Córdoba, “which is a walking museum to which you have to go hanging pictures”, Vacas points out.
Olga and Mikhail’s farewell and their return to the cruelty and injustice of war will soon arrive, but their mural for peace will remain in Córdoba to send the world a message of “hope” and an end to the war through culture and the art. EFE