Ukrainian architects are abandoning the traditional image of an empty helmet for monuments to unidentified defenders at the National Military Memorial Cemetery, replacing it with a symbol of knightly armor. This was stated by one of the architects of the National Military Memorial Cemetery Serhiy Derbin during a discussion of the design of monuments and structures for the NMMC, a correspondent of UNN reports.
When the architects were looking for an image of an unidentified defender, we began to analyze history, historical heritage, and the Ukrainian historical myth. We realized that we needed to look for a timeless symbol that was found in the knightly armor that existed on the territory of Ukraine
According to him, in the world tradition, an empty helmet is used to perpetuate the memory of unidentified defenders, but this symbol is biased because it was used by the Soviet Union.
There is the word "feat," and there is the word "hero." Now we see a problem when people say "hero of Ukraine" - it means an award or just a social status. That's why we started looking deeper and found chivalry. Knightly armor existed, worn by Cossacks, worn by hetmans, and so we decided that it would be interesting to create a sculpture. This is a sculptural art form that anyone can understand
According to him, the main thesis is that the foundation of the sculpture has a clear message: knights. Because all those who died are knights.
People say: "Give us an infantryman, an assault rifleman". There is a question of artistic image, sculpture and modern armor of a modern warrior. They don't look great, and we can talk about this separately, in monumental sculpture. Out of time, these images look perfect in sculpture. We need to create a metaphor. For example, when you make a monument to a musician, you draw a lyre, even though no one plays the lyre. But everyone realizes that it's a dead musician. It's the same here. We need to create a powerful image
Recall
The National Military Memorial Cemetery has established standards for tombstones that allow only the state emblem, a photograph, personal data, a religious symbol, and the highest award of the defender at the time of burial to be placed on the monuments.