This video shows the winner of " Ukraines Got Talent", Kseniya
Simonova, 24, drawing a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table
showing how ordinary people were affected
by the German invasion during World War II. Her talent, which
admittedly is a strange one, is mesmeric to watch.
The images, projected onto a large screen, moved many in the audience
to
tears and she won the top prize of about £75,000.
She begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting holding hands
on
a bench under a starry sky, but then warplanes appear and the happy
scene is obliterated.
It is replaced by a womans face crying, but then a baby arrives and the
woman smiles again. Once again war returns and Miss Simonova throws the
sand into chaos from which a young womans face appears.
She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, before the
image turns into a monument to an Unknown Soldier.
This outdoor scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is
looking out on the monument from within a house.
In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man standing
outside, with his hands pressed against the glass, saying goodbye.
The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine, resulted in one in
four of the population being killed with eight to 11 million deaths out
of a population of 42 million.
Kseniya Simonova says: "I find it difficult enough to create art using
paper and pencils or paintbrushes, but using sand and fingers is beyond
me. The art, especially when the war is used as the subject matter,
even brings some audience members to tears. And theres surely no bigger
compliment."
