ruins and reproductions - Serhiy Savchenko

“War destroys and wipes out any kind of individuality.
Savchenko’s paintings are about the city’s recognizable landscape that is transformed into a monotony of ruins that has no personality anymore. This is symbolic and inherent in today’s world: demolishing and equalizing personality as such.”
From a conversation with the artist Olena Turyanska

“Every government or country writes a story in its own way, so the story should not be understood but felt.” Anselm Kiefer

“Цей проект розповідає про людську дурість і безпамятство…” Влодко Кауфман. Український художник.
“This project speaks about human folly and forgetfulness…”— Vlodko Kaufman, Ukrainian artist.

“Ruins and Reproduction” is a series of large-scale diptychs created between 2018–2022. The works are based on archival photographs of cities destroyed during major military conflicts — from World War I to the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war. Among the depicted locations are Dresden, Coventry, Warsaw, Kyiv, Hiroshima, Gdansk, as well as Mariupol and Kharkiv (Ukraine), and Leuven (Belgium), destroyed during the First World War.
The project reflects on war as an agent of radical erasure — of identity, of memory, of individual presence. Savchenko’s paintings offer abstract yet emotionally charged visions of ruins. His expressive, gestural technique merges oil and acrylic — antagonistic materials that react and crack, forming fragile surfaces that physically embody the rupture and fragmentation caused by violence.
Each diptych — measuring 180 x 240 cm — consists of two panels that visually mirror and contradict one another. Importantly, all pieces within the series are designed to be interchangeable: fragments of one can connect with another, symbolizing the disturbing uniformity of destruction across different geographies and times. The uniqueness of each city is obliterated — what remains are structures of absence, trauma, and dust.
Yet, beneath the devastation lies a quiet force: resistance. The project is not only an elegy for what was lost, but also a meditation on what persists. The ruins, rendered with care and depth, speak to the endurance of memory and the resilience of spirit. The viewer is invited to confront the past not as fixed history, but as a living echo — one that demands attention and reflection.

Serhiy Savchenko, resistance against death. Olena Grubb, MAAB Sotheby’s Institute of Art