Another work by the renowned Ukrainian muralist Sashko Korban now adorns one of the walls of the Zaporizhstal steelworks. It depicts eight portraits of Zaporizhzhia's prominent figures of the community, culture, sports, architecture, and science, united by passion for their cause and Zaporizhzhia, to which they devoted part of their lives.
The mural has appeared as part of the joint project of Zaporizhstal and Sashko Korban entitled "Every One Of Us Is A Hero! Everyone Creates Modern History". The initiative has been developed to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the steelworks and is driven by the desire to show that Ukrainians are united and cherish their national memory. Each of the contemporaries and employees of the enterprise, just like the prominent historical figures, is building the future of a strong, tenacious and indomitable Ukraine.
The mural depicts the teacher and educator Mykola Korf (1834-1883), the mayor of Oleksandrivsk Feliks Movchanovskyi (1852-1921), the city's first historian Yakiv Novytskyi (1847-1925), the public figure Pavlo Chyzhevskyi (1860-1925), the Ukrainian theatre director and actor Volodymyr Mahar (1900-1965), the athlete from Zaporizhzhia Yakiv Punkin (1921-1994), Zaporizhzhia's chief architect Serhii Vasylevskyi, and the founder of the National Scientific School of History of Southern Ukraine Anatolii Boiko (1960-2010). The famous Zaporizhzhia residents glorified the city and made it better for years to come. Just like Zaporizhstal's employees today. The muralist drew inspiration from them.
"I talk to the people who work here every day. Thousands of people work at Zaporizhstal against all odds, even under shelling and amid constant air-raid sirens. They are the ones who inspire me, the ones we need to talk about now. About every worker who does their job, about every man and woman who defends the country. Because if not for them, all this would not have been possible" the artist said.
The portraits are made in the pop art style, but with one peculiar feature - the artist left the eyes of each of the prominent figures realistic, in black and white.
"This is my special style, I started working in it more than 10 years ago. The idea is simple: a bright colourful plot and realistic eyes. Why is that? Because the eyes are the most important thing in a person, and it is them that I always seek to depict most expressively," said Sashko KORBAN.
As a reminder, Sashko Korban completed his first work in December 2013: he depicted Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, the founder and first head of the Ukrainian Cossack state, a talented commander and diplomat, on the building of Zaporizhstal's cold rolling shop.
