Refugees

Description provided by artist:

"September 11. “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.” Victor Frankl

Millions of Ukrainians fled the war. But most of them have never found peace. It seems to be safe and there are pleasures as usual, but their hearts are filled with emptiness and pain. It's not that there are loved ones, homes, work, or favorite things left in Ukraine. It is meaning that is left behind. The very meaning that transforms any hardship and suffering into life tests. And the paradox is that those who stay and look into the eyes of death every day, risking their lives on the battlefield or in cities under bombardment, feel more alive and happy than ever! Because they have a purpose. The lack of purpose and meaning in life forces people into monstrous wars in the name of delusional ideas. For many Russians, "Russian World" is an escape from emptiness and a sense of the meaninglessness of existence. Destructive and absolutely artificial meaning. Neither war nor epidemic can take it away or confer it. They can only push us to find it ourselves where it has always been. Art, business, politics, any achievements are just tools. The true thing worth living and enduring deprivation for is the way to ourselves. This path is changeable and never final. Life guides us along it through the events and situations in which it places us at every new moment. Through our decisions and the actions that follow them. Wherever we go, our fear always follows our steps. We can't escape it, we have to overcome it and, as a rule, beyond it lies our true destiny. It's not safety and pleasures that make us happy but true meaning. Finding it is our primary task, wherever we are!"

Photography, digital art, mixed technique.