“Remember Ukraine” by Ukrainian artist Kateryna Gaidamaka, lit up Wembley Park today to mark the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
IMAGE CREDIT: Amanda Rose / Wembley Park
Today, Friday 24th February 2023, Wembley Park lights up to mark the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In an expression of solidarity with the people of Ukraine, “Remember Ukraine”, a powerful screen installation by Ukrainian artist Kateryna Gaidamaka is on display across six 6m-tall totem structures located on White Horse Square and Olympic Way, framing the new Olympic Steps which lead visitors up to Wembley Stadium.
Kateryna Gaidamaka is a Ukrainian artist and designer working at the intersection of visual exploration and technology. She has studied at the Royal Academy of Art KABK, The Hague, Netherlands and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Her poignant artwork was first displayed as part of “Visions of Home” exhibition hosted by Wembley Park across the summer and autumn of 2022. “Visions of Home” was a homage to their homeland by Ukrainian artists, photographers, and architects. Co-curated by Ukrainian-born artist and photographer Ira Lupu and Wembley Park’s Cultural Director, Josh McNorton, the public exhibition formed part of the 2022 Wembley Park Art Trail and incorporated a variety of photographs, site-specific installations, and digital artworks – all conveying powerful messages to raise awareness of how, from the perspective of Ukrainian artists, a sense of home has been forever altered.
“Remember Ukraine” is also displayed today across two supersized digital screens on both sides of the Bobby Moore Bridge, the main gateway into the Wembley Park neighbourhood for millions of residents and visitors each year.
Here, the screens make use of the direct composition of words “Remember Ukraine” – with “Ukraine” interchanging with names of the many cities and towns heavily affected by the Russian aggression over the past 12 months.
“We worked together with Kateryna to develop a bold and bright message to the 90,000 crossing the Bobby Moore Bridge and seeing the digital totems installed by the Wembley Stadium entrance. We developed a motion design piece mentioning the many villages, towns, and cities heavily affected by the Russian war. This approach helps to widen, contextualise, and humanise the word Ukraine, and I hope that it allows the viewer to acknowledge the reality of the millions of fates behind it that were affected.”
Ira Lupu, curator of “Visions of Home”
The composition brings the message home – ultimately, encouraging the beholder to not let this war sink into collective oblivion.
“I am immensely proud that ‘Remember Ukraine’ is once again on display at Wembley Park for all to see, for all to acknowledge what has and is still happening, for all to remember and not to forget.”
Kateryna Gaidamaka
