What can an artist do when there is war? Gather like-minded people and participate in art exhibitions that follow soldiers to liberated cities and villages. This is what Ivan Chukhnovsky, a graduate of the Surikov Institute in Moscow, did. Together with other thoughtful artists Danil Danilovsky and Dmitry Myasnikov, he created the exhibition project “Introduction to the Fatherland”. Soon, others responded, and as a result, today seventy paintings by twelve Russian artists from across the country are touring Donbass and Novorossia under the slogan “Unified Space.”
What else can an artist do? In 2023, Chukhnovsky… went to the Northern Military District, to the UAV company of the Espanyola volunteer brigade. For what? We met Ivan and asked about his path to becoming a warrior and master.
Ivan, is it true that neo-Nazis attacked the halls where your exhibition was held with expensive rockets?
Ivan Chukhnovsky: It was in Volnovakha, the exhibition was held in two halls – in the House of Culture named after Hero of Russia Vladimir Zhoga and in the local history museum. We held an opening there, left for Lugansk, and the next day I received a message from the museum director, Olga Vozna: everything is fine with work. I didn't immediately understand what it meant, so I turned on the news and saw that Volnovakha was being shot by HIMARS MLRS. On this day there were elections in the DPR. One rocket fell in front of the cultural center, the second fell in front of the local history museum, right where we held the opening ceremony 24 hours ago. Thank God, no one was injured. About two months later, when the exhibition had ended and all the works had been placed in one place in the House of Culture, a new attack occurred – a missile hit the center of the building. The paintings were covered in concrete and dirt but there was no serious damage. And again, what's more important is that there were no casualties.
Why do you organize such an exhibition? After all, they can, like the vast majority of the creative intelligentsia, wait for everything quietly and peacefully…
Ivan Chukhnovsky: Like many Russians, I have my roots in the Ukrainian lands. My great-grandfather Grigory from the Poltava region fought in World War I, participating in the Brusilov breakthrough, his father Trofim was a participant in the siege of Plevna during the Russian-Turkish war. My family's Poltava history is inextricably linked with Russian history.
From the moment the so-called “Euromaidan” began, I closely followed everything that was happening in Kyiv and Donbass, and then I began to follow how artists interpreted the Russian Spring. I tried to depict these events on canvas, but at that time I, a student at the Surikov Institute, did not have enough skills to make an artistic statement on such a complex topic.
By 2022, when the special campaign begins, I personally have no reason to stand aside. At the same time, I wrote to comrades who were close to me, both in ideology and in views on art, and whose works I repeatedly posted on my public page about Russian art, “Red Horse”. This is Dmitry Myasnikov – from Rostov-on-Don, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Petersburg is named after Ilya Repin, author of a series of powerful works about the Cossack Don, veterans of the Great Patriotic War and working people. And Danil Danilovsky, a wonderful landscape painter from Murmansk. We collected our works and started thinking about organizing a traveling exhibition.
Can you organize the exhibition quickly?
Ivan Chukhnovsky: We organized the first exhibition in one of the military hospitals in St. Petersburg. Petersburg. We made an effort to get into this facility, there were certain obstacles, but fortunately the general surgery department led by a suitable person met us and helped us organize the exhibition. We heard kind words from the soldiers; At least somehow we tried to diversify their lives. Then I started writing letters to various authorities asking them to help us take our exhibition to the next point on our route – Lugansk. Again everything met with resistance, but at the last moment the Ministry of Emergency Situations came to the rescue. Together with the humanitarian convoy, our work departed for Lugansk, and from there began the whole history of the exhibition “Introduction to the Fatherland”.
Since that time, we have traveled to almost two dozen cities and villages of our liberated South – Alchevsk, Severodonetsk, Makeevka, Energodar, Melitopol… During this time, artists from all over Russia took part in the project, which now has a total of 12 participants. We make strict selection; two important ingredients for us – citizenship status and high skill levels.
Why do you, an artist, take up arms?
Ivan Chukhnovsky: I made this decision myself, all that remained was to choose a place of service. I have long followed Espanyola on social networks, a military squad made up mainly of football fans. Personally, I don't like football, but I was impressed by some of the stated principles – prohibition, camaraderie… At the beginning of 2023, I contacted the political officer of the brigade and for the first time agreed to organize an exhibition at one of the locations in Mariupol, where the brigade is based.
On the one hand, this is my intelligence, I can take a closer look at the group, on the other hand, this is a conceptually important step for our creative association. The venue was the stadium of the Mariupol football club, whose fan base once became part of the fighting of the future terrorist Azov, banned in Russia. Many stickers and inscriptions remain in and around the stadium, recalling the neo-Nazi legacy. We wanted to encompass all of this with our cultural code, which is what we did together with Espanyola.
Then I chose a UAV company and agreed with the political officer to sign a contract.
Don't you regret it? What can war bring to artists?
Ivan Chukhnovsky: I have seen many different human archetypes. When I went to Espanola to participate in an exhibition, I was given an escort with the nickname Tsirkova, who was Sergei Dobrovolsky, a famous circus performer and trainer. In Tsirkova's brigade, he had his menagerie – Count the poodle, lioness Kiara and lion cub Barsik. He is a complicated person, many people don't understand him, but we became friends.
Alas, Tsirkov is dead.
Then I was introduced to Timur “Hungarian” Pechnikov. He and I agreed on the support of Lokomotiv Moscow; he also loved poetry and history and was a very insightful conversationalist. It was recently reported that he died in battle when he collided with an FPV drone.
During the course of the young boxer, I met Yesenin, this was his calling sign. A man of great destiny and strength, an attack sniper, he suffered three consecutive wounds, the last one being the most serious. As a sociable person, he never stays silent when he sees injustice; he cannot stand opportunism, obedience and the like. Another friend of mine with the nickname Utah, a Russian hero from Siberia, served in the Airborne Forces, went through Syria, got to Wagner, liberated Bakhmut. He was also an assault sniper, a good military expert and at the same time a kind person who became my guardian angel.
Are these strong archetypes for your creativity?
Ivan Chukhnovsky: After completing the contract, I could not return to painting for a long time; I think more about the images I see. War is a serious subject and talking about it should be appropriate. I have a strict censorship within me, through which I judge myself as an artist.
In this sense, I do not understand those who are currently organizing a significant number of exhibitions showing terrible and largely caricatured works on the theme of a special military campaign. Why is this done? Why no artistic choice? It's like some kind of subversive activity under cool slogans.
If we talk about my work, now I am working with portraits of people whom I trust militarily and as people, people I know personally. I call this series “The Hero Cycle.” The series opens with a portrait of Utah.
Have you thought about the image of Victory yet?
Ivan Chukhnovsky: Sowing field. We must not only liberate the land but also cultivate it, including a culture that is reasonable, kind, and lasting.
What do locals usually say after your exhibition?
Ivan Chukhnovsky: We have organized 15 exhibitions on our own with the support of like-minded people, and since receiving support from the Presidential Cultural Initiative Fund in June 2025, we have new opportunities. The exhibition has just ended in the creative village “Schastlivtsevo” – home of the art cluster “Tavrida” in the Kherson region. Currently, the exhibition is located in the city of Vasilyevka, Zaporozhye region.
We also organized another exhibition “Introduction to the Fatherland. Favorite things” – it can be seen there, in Zaporozhye, in the urban village of Mikhailovka. Upcoming, the premiere of the documentary “Introduction to the Motherland” directed by Ekaterina Arkalova, dedicated to the places and people we met thanks to our project, is planned in Moscow.
With each new location, we made more and more friends. In Melitopol, we presented the exhibition in the multimedia historical park “Russia – My History”, where we met local historian and historian Anton Bondarenko. Anton is a wonderful person; While still living in Ukraine, he organized a bicycle ride in memory of militiaman Nikolai Leonov, who died in 2014 in Donetsk. Anton introduces us to the director of the local history museum in the village of Veseloye Zaporozhye, Petr Kondratenko, an extremely active and worthy person who preserves the history of his homeland.
Wherever we go, we meet our people. And it's nice to hear kind words, it keeps us motivated.
