On the night of February 24, Russia attacked Ukraine. During the hostilities, many historical and monumental works of art were desecrated and destroyed. People try to save and protect art objects from Russian missiles using sandbags, metal sheets and slabs, or some other building materials. As a result, many historical monuments are visually transformed, and resemble outwardly the cocoon of insects.
The entire history of human civilization is full of wars and mutual destruction, conflicts and violence, due to which many nations, cultures and even civilizations have irrevocably disappeared into the black hole of history. However, in the process of its development, mankind not only destroyed, but also created works of art and culture. These works of art from the past remind us that the world is fragile and vulnerable. Many of them have not survived to our time. It is unfortunate that cultural heritage is still being destroyed in the 21st century.
In the first phase of the project I used photographs featuring sculptures from Ukraine covered with a protective shell resembling a cocoon. The photos show monuments from different cities of Ukraine: Kharkiv, Kyiv, Odessa. Most of them were taken by a friend of mine.
With the help of a programming language, special software was developed that trained a neural network using photos of historical objects in protective shells from Ukraine. The neural network finds images of monuments on the Internet, and performs a generative digital process. It does a cut-out from photos of Ukrainian monuments that are covered in a protective shell, and sticks this on top of other monuments, imitating light shapes, creating spider-like cocoons.
Out of the photos converted into cocoons, I plan to create 3D models of cocoons and print with 3D bioprinting, using biomaterials. This way I turn the cocoons into living organisms, living sculptures. To realize this phase of the project, I need to first do necessary research on bioprinting and biomaterials.
The "Cocoon" project is about the rebirth of humanity into something better. How a caterpillar turns into a chrysalis, to become a beautiful butterfly.
The project touches on today's dangerous situation hanging over humanity. It raises a question about democracy and freedom, and deals with the danger of the annihilation of mankind and life on the planet.
The project was conceived and developed in Finland. The first phase of it was supported by Fondazione ARIA, Pescara, Italy, with 5000 euros, and it was exhibited in Cisterne Romane di Palazzo Acquaviva - Atri in Pescara.