Ukrainian couple turns ammo boxes into Christian icons
This couple turns military ammo boxes into Christian icons
Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
Oleksandr Klymenko and Sofia Atlantova’s project ‘Buy an icon – save a life’
has raised $300,000 for a volunteer field hospital
treating soldiers in the conflict in eastern Ukraine
(SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) UKRAINIAN ARTIST AND CO-FOUNDER OF ART PROJECT 'BUY AN ICON - SAVE A LIFE', SOFIA ATLANTOVA, SAYING: (WHILE DEMONSTRATING ICON)"Here is a piece from a box for hand-held machine gun ammunition. It is either a bottom or top, I can't say now. It was not made of wood, it looks like fibreboard. We also use this material, though it changes its shape as time passes. So it needs a thicker preparatory coat."
(SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) UKRAINIAN ARTIST AND CO-FOUNDER OF ART PROJECT 'BUY AN ICON - SAVE A LIFE', OLEKSANDR KLYMENKO, SAYING: (AS HE OPEN AN AMMUNITION BOX)"An ammunition box - like a coffin - is taken from under the ground, where it was previously stored. Once it is opened, death breaks out of it and destroys everything around. We do something very different with it - we transform the atrocities which broke out of the box by painting life here. (POINTING ON BOX COVER)"