Ukrainian 3D artist and XR creator Artem Ivanenko had to dodge Russian tanks and disobey military curfews to capture the devastation of the war in his home city and seed the creation of Murals, a nine-minute experience which envelopes the viewer with the Ukranian devastation. It is juxtaposed with UK street artist Banksy’s poignant murals that popped up on a series of destroyed buildings in and around Kyiv shortly after the Russian invasion.
Billed as a showcase of Ukraine’s ongoing fight for peace and freedom, Murals captures the spirit of a country battered by war. It is screening as part of Geneva International Film Festival’s Virtual Territories IV programme.
Ivanenko pent around 15 years as an 3D, VFX and lately XR artist creating works for cinema, advertising and music videos. He is from Irpin in northern Ukraine, one of the first towns to be hit during the Russian invasion in February 2022.He fled the tanks rolling down the road outside his apartment before returning as soon as he could, determined to record the devastating destruction using 3D scanning.
“It was a matter of memory for me,” Ivanenko says. “I needed to record the devastation so I could remember clearly the scale of the destruction.”
Thanks to his wide network of friends across Europe and in the US, Ivanenko was introduced to Alex Topaller and Daniel Shapiro, artists, creatives and founders of New York -based creative studio Aggressive, who had previously worked in Poland and other central European countries. The trio joined forces to form the creative team behind what became Murals.
Laura Gomez of Spain’s Tigrelab oversaw art direction and CG/Unreal animation, while virtual production was done by Maciej Żemojcin at Poland’s Pixel Race. The experience was produced by Radosława Bardes at Poland’s ATM Virtual and Ukrainian banner Mriya Production’s Maksym Dudko in Kyiv, with the backing of Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and the Polish Film Institute. Shapiro and Topaller direct.
“The team reached out to Banksy’s people to tell him we were working on this project,” says Topaller.
“They did not object, it’s a non-profit endeavour,” Shapiro adds. “Making this, we all have the same goals as Banksy does in drawing attention to Ukraine and the war.”
Ivanenko scanned thousands of photographs before building detailed models. It took weeks to scan the buildings and destruction, having to work round the military rules in place in Ukraine, “sometimes using illegal methods,” Ivanenko smiles.
The finished experience deploys more than 10 detailed models, each model using between 1,000 and 1,500 scans.
Topaller and Shapiro set about weaving the experience together, all the while mindful of avoiding any charges of being mawkish or exploitative. “It affects people emotionally, especially when you see it in a surround setting,” says Topaller of Murals. “Any form of art is manipulation, essentially. We tried to be very careful, stay on this on this line that feels true and that doesn’t take advantage of anything that’s happening out there.”
As they were working on the piece, they screened it to people from the creative community in Ukraine, some whom had left Ukraine some who were still there, friends and refugees, to ensure they weren’t crossing any lines in manipulating audiences.
“We had debates about what we’re doing because it’s a live conflict and whether or not it is okay to make a piece of art’,” Topaller says.
The team gave themselves parameters for using the material. “We said ‘okay we have these 3D scans, we’re not going to augment or build anything extra on them to make the scene more gratuitous’,” explains Shapiro. ”’We’re going to keep them as they are, we’re not going to animate people, we’re just going to restrict ourselves to sound, trying to walk carefully, so nothing becomes gratuitous’.”
Murals premiered at this year’s Marché du Film in Cannes Next, and lands in Geneva fresh from winning the audience award for best immersive / XR work at the BFI London Film Festival.
“Ukraine needs massive support from the world,” says Ivanenko. ”Murals is like a message for the world. Two years on the world is bored of Ukraine in the news. We fear this situation, it’s my house, it’s my country and I need to say let’s not stop talking about the fact war is continuing now’. Maybe our project can help. I hope.”
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