The exhibition of Mykola Kostenko's drawings "Mariupol Firebird" is an artistic diary of a 14-year-old boy about the terrible war of the russian federation against Ukraine in his hometown of Mariupol, Donetsk region.
    "Drawings of the son from the Mariupol basement. You can observe how the events developed. From "almost calm" first days to fights near the house. And the most peaceful place is the basement. A total of 21 days without electricity, water, food," his mother Halyna Izotova, a police major and head of the vocational guidance department of the Donetsk State University of Internal Affairs, who moved from Mariupol to Kropyvnytskyi, wrote on her social media page.
    Having visited the Oleksandr Osmerkin Memorial Art Museum as a participant of the Art Studios art project on the theme: "Portraits of contemporaries against the background of the war", Galina Izotova spoke about her son, an 8th-grade student at Mariupol School No. 3, where they moved in 2014 from Donetsk, and showed his drawings on the screen of his own smartphone, in which he recorded his thoughts, excitement, imagination about how everything happened on the streets of the city under terrible shelling and explosions, as well as photos of a bombed-out house and the children of friends, among whom was her son, who, despite all the horrors, were smiling, savoring the chocolate snickers that they had so unexpectedly received, and a poem written and posted on the Instagram page by a young teacher of physics and computer science, Maria Uhrynchak from Kolomiyshchyna, who was extremely impressed by the drawings and the story of the Mariupol boy, who was a miracle reached Ivano-Frankivsk. That's when the idea arose to organize an exhibition of children's testimonies about the terrible war of adults.
    The virtual exhibition is based on 12 drawings about the war by Mykola Kostenko. And it is complemented by the creative works of a young artist from a peaceful life, because he is a successful pupil of the exemplary artistic team of the fine art studio "Firebird" of the Mariupol City Palace of Aesthetic Education, the winner of numerous city and regional children's art competitions - "Children's Paints of the Azov Region", "Flowers of Mariupol", "My hometown", "World of beauty and fantasy", "Rules of the road". It is not for nothing that the head of the studio Olena Burlachenko, sending her student's drawings, diplomas and photos via Viber for the upcoming exhibition, optimistically wrote: "He studied and will continue studying!!!"
    The exhibition also presents photos from the family album, in which Mykola is with his parents, with friends in nature, on the sandy shore of the Sea of Azov, and with his four-legged pet, about whom Galina Izotova also created a post: "When my son was 10, we were given a "minichka" sneeze, she weighed 200 g at 3 months. Now my son is 14, she is 4 years old. The son has changed, he understands the responsibility of handling a micro dog. And she protects him from my husband and me (about lessons). And this was our vent when Mariupol was being destroyed, and we were in the basements. She warmed her son, and he had a goal to save her and himself."

A poem by Maria Uhrynchak in the original language.

Нас було троє, а стало дванадцять.
Ми з Маріуполя дісталися землі.
Ніколи і нікому не бажаю знати,
Як проживали ми жахливі дні.
Три тижні стали для нас цілими роками.
Ми кілька різних місць змінили за цей час.
Завжди, так поруч з нами, прилітало.
Усі будинки руйнувались на очах.
Спочатку вимкнулося у нас світло,
Згодом вода, а найстрашніше - газ.
12 градусів морозу було,
Ніяк не зігрівало все це нас...
Дуже раділи, коли сніг із неба падав,
Бо можна було роздобуть води.
Мій син в підвалі малював малюнки,
Як проходили вуличні бої...
Наші військові з усіх сил оберігали,
Що де знайдуть, ділилися завжди.
Одного дня так снікерси допались.
З якогось складу випадково ті знайшли.
Так страшно було, літаки у небі
Скидали бомби всюди, де могли.
І вже не раз ми із життям прощались,
Не вірили, що лишимось живі.
Та найжахливіше - це мертві люди,
Їх так багато в місті вже було.
Спочатку ще встигали їх ховати,
А згодом - нереально вже було...
Ми вижили, тепер ми - у безпеці,
Та серце своє залишили всі там.
Ми так красиво місто збудували,
А ці падлюки зруйнували усе нам.
Блокадний Маріуполь - це найгірше,
Що зараз в Україні в цей час є,
Ми просимо усіх людей молитись,
Щоб хлопці залишилися живі.
Їм дуже тяжко, просто неймовірно,
Вони вже, бідні, з голоду падуть.
За нашу неньку, рідну Україну,
Свої життя там у бою кладуть...
Тепер ми тут, одна вже є родина,
Ми пережили пекло на землі.
Хай мир наступить в нашій Україні
І хай усі залишаться живі!

Марія Угринчак
11.04.2022