As part of a one-month artist residency at the Institute of Automation in Kyiv in October 2023, the Berlin based artists Norman Behrendt and Eric Pawlitzky worked on the construction of an underground metro line between Kyiv and Berlin. The aim is to create a poetic connection between the two cities.
The work on the project began with extensive research in Kyiv. Based on a walk along the M1 the artists made sketches and technical drawings, took casts of locally characteristic decorative elements, such as the well-known PO-2 wall segment and a concrete version of the Kyiv Metro Company signet, in order to produce plaster reliefs in original size in the studio. Behrendt and Pawlitzky created a metro plan as a sunken relief and models for ventilation architecture that visualise the underground connection between both cities. To give the work the further dimension the artists used sounds from the Kyiv metro and the Berlin subway to create a sound installation that emanates from the two ventilation shafts.
Finally, in late October 2023, with the completion of their residence in Kyiv the work was presented for the first time on a wasteland on Kazymyr Malevich Street in Kyiv's public space.
Based on the research and the sculpture drafts the artists aim to build a permanent sculpture in the public space of Kyiv and also plan in analogy to it a similar sculpture in Berlin in order to complete the cross-border work of art. 
The European idea, translated into a direct underground connection between both cities, where distance and borders play no role. The project envisions a Europe, in which the increasing control of mobility, the geographical separation from our neighbours and the belief that the world can be a safe place, if only we can control the risks and uncertainties, will be a thing of the past.

The triptych "Heart of the Nation" embodies the symbol of the Ukrainian people, like a big tree that stretches its branches around. For centuries, they tried to destroy the tree, and the branches were ruthlessly cut, but it survived and, despite everything, continues to stand, firmly clinging to its native land by its roots.
This tree represents all Ukrainians who strive to preserve their own right to independence, freedom and peaceful life for themselves and their descendants. As long as we fight, the "heart of the nation" continues to beat. That is why, during the liberation struggle, we must remember that our "branches" and roots are from one mighty tree that unites us as a nation.
Russian colonial policy seeks constant expansion by destroying another culture, so it is dangerous for Ukraine in the same way that mistletoe is deadly for a tree, and in order for the tree to continue to live, it must be cut down.
Art has always had a powerful influence on people, so the goal of the project is to attract attention and remind about unity, kinship and common goal on the way to freedom. No wonder O. Oles wrote in his poem "We will not raise the red flag": "We will gain land and freedom and heal the wounds of the ages."

The brutality of the Russian army's offensive in Ukraine can only be compared with the actions of the Nazis in World War II. Mass murder, rape, destruction of entire cities.
Russian aggression against Ukraine began in 2014, but the current phase of the war has surpassed anything that came before. Suffering spread not only in cities occupied by Russia, but also throughout Ukraine, where Russian missiles and drones are flying. It is very difficult to see the suffering of war victims, as well as to understand how such cruelty is even possible in the 21st century.

The brutality of the Russian army's offensive in Ukraine can only be compared with the actions of the Nazis in World War II. Mass murder, rape, destruction of entire cities.
Russian aggression against Ukraine began in 2014, but the current phase of the war has surpassed anything that came before. Suffering spread not only in cities occupied by Russia, but also throughout Ukraine, where Russian missiles and drones are flying. It is very difficult to see the suffering of war victims, as well as to understand how such cruelty is even possible in the 21st century.

My work "Stolen Childhood" is about children who were destined to see and experience a real war. About young Ukrainians, whom the Russian fascists forced to learn such terrible words as "missile attack", "bomb shelter", "evacuation"
Childhood has special colors. The sky is bright blue. The occupier steals children's childhood, steals colors, destroys their inner worlds.
I believe that after all these terrible trials, OUR VICTORY will come, and today's children will be the ones who will clean the Ukrainian land, rebuild Ukrainian cities, and save the Ukrainian nation! And while they grow up, we will defend the truth and build a free UKRAINE, Glory to Ukraine!
Feedback from art critic Iryna Khomenko:Playing with light for the installation "Stolen Childhood" by Konstantin Lapuchen creates variability in the representation and expressiveness of the work, but not in its reading. From any angle and light, the installation tells about the life of a child who was forcefully robbed of the holiday, brightness, even mundaneness. A child is a collective image of all the fates of our children: evacuated, deported, orphaned, crippled...

The idea of the project arose on the basis of a real story. In the break between the battles near Bakhmut, a swarm of bees flew into an empty ammunition box. One of the soldiers made frames with honeycombs for them. 
This case became a metaphor for the power of nature, which, despite everything, finds a way to assimilate and continue life - even in military artifacts. Bees are highly organized insects and in many ways resemble human societies. As part of the project, an installation was created from ammunition boxes transformed into beehives.

"On February 24, the anniversary of the full-scale war, I did this work in my own workshop at the Institute of Automation for several invited friends. I sometimes use the space of my own workshop to create mobile installations. For me, such works are an important component of the laboratory creative process, which aims to create a live interaction with the viewer, encouraging dialogue on various topics that concern me.
This work was created using old books thrown into the trash. Their destruction in a metaphorical form aims to show the materiality of the conditional myth. This work was, to some extent, my answer to those I know from Russia, who for a whole year did not publicly react to the war and to those who justify it with the arguments of official propaganda. I wanted to emphasize that the concepts and narratives that dictatorship manipulates are fictional, unlike the suffering it brings."

The presented album became a certain tool, and at the same time embodied in artistic means the need for expression, reflection, internal discussion and analysis of the events experienced after the full-scale invasion. The material for this analysis was viewed photos, video reports, news, and finally sensory perception of events.
The elements that make up the album are both individual works and conceptual sequences that intertwine and interact, forming a single coherent narrative. The open space that represents the album elsewhere expands and splits into separate macro/micro parts. Certain events layer and create reliefs and folds. Work on the album began in July 2022.

In the Lutsk region, thunder is considered to be the sound that arises from the movement of a terrible deadly cannon, which is ruled by Archstrategist Michael, through the cloud. Thunder arrows have the appearance of either a thin vine or a conical ball. Thunder happens most often when the sky is completely covered with clouds, because it is at this time that devils especially like to tease God: they run along roads, spinning in a whirlwind, break trees in forests, tear roofs off buildings, etc.
To make it convenient for Archangel Michael to see where the devil is hiding, and to follow the direction of the red-hot arrow's flight, the clouds break, through which the light of the true sky shines. Lightning in the form of a straight line or dash, zigzags and snakes are formed because the thunderbolt flies after the devil, who flees in all directions.

An interactive installation that is accompanied by the sound of a siren when approaching it. Mailboxes, paint, heating, sound
The day is coming when the world around is collapsing. There comes a day when meanings and feelings, addresses and mailboxes change, amid sirens and burning buildings, you feel more alive than ever, because you understand that tomorrow may not happen.
Life goes on, but war leaves behind death, destruction, mutilated destinies as monuments that no one will forget anyway.