#Exhibit of the Month

The work In Memoriam. In Memory of the Heroes Who Fell at the Nistru (1992) was developed within the Center for Culture and Military History and published under the auspices of the Government of the Republic of Moldova, the Bureau for Reintegration, and the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Moldova. Authors: Gheorghe Bălan, Vitalie Ciobanu, Gheorghe Cojocaru.

This work provides a retrospective of the events that led to the outbreak of the war on the Nistru, accompanied by photographs of the heroes who lost their lives in the battles to defend the independence and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova.

On March 2, 1992, the political conflict in the Nistru region escalated into a true fratricidal war. Under the fabricated pretext of "defending Russia's southern borders," political adventurers from the former Soviet metropolis encouraged Transnistrian separatism by arming secessionist paramilitary groups. At the same time, thousands of mercenary Cossacks and prisoners released early from jails, along with tanks and missiles, were sent against Independent Moldova, in a desperate attempt to revive the fallen empire.

Russia's undeclared war against the Republic of Moldova left behind hundreds of dead and wounded, shattered families, and villages in ruins. More than 50,000 peaceful residents from the conflict zone were forced to flee their homes, seeking refuge from the horrors of war.

For the sake of freedom and the future, Moldova's defenders faced death, enduring the hardships and humiliations of war.

During the Nistru war, 198 soldiers of the National Army and 89 personnel from the Ministry of Internal Affairs lost their lives, while 40 combatants went missing without a trace, and nearly 300 were left disabled.

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Exhibitions

"The Ukrainian universe of Maria Prymachenko in Chisinau"

May 10 – June 30, 2023

The Polish Institute in Bucharest will present on the fence of the National Museum of History of Moldova, an exhibition dedicated to the Ukrainian folk art artist Maria Prymachenko. It is an opportunity for our countries to express their support for Ukraine in these difficult days of the war. The exhibition "Ukrainian Universe of Maria Prymachenko" can be visited from May 10 to June 30, 2023.

The Museum of History and Ethnography in Ivankiv, located in the Kyiv region, burned down during the Russian invasion on February 27, 2022. In its collection were 25 works belonging to the Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko. Some of them managed to be saved by the inhabitants of the city, who took them out of the burning building.

The universe of naive painters is broken from reality, full of fantastic creatures and plants. For them, such a way of painting is absolutely normal. For us, however, trained in academic painting, studying a work that requires a lot of our attention and in-depth knowledge of plants, animals, and people challenges us to call upon our own intuition. So let's focus on Maria Prymachenko's paintings. They are beautiful, colourful, full of eccentric creatures and plants. There is nothing accidental in this, as Maria grew up in a family where all its members had artistic talent. Grandmother had specialized in dyeing Easter eggs, father had been an accomplished carpenter, and mother had enjoyed embroidery. All this entourage, the fact that she kept an eye on what her father was doing, the attraction to the ornaments on the embroideries and kilims of her mother's work had a strong impact on her art. In the rich ornamentation of Prymachenko's works, similar to that used in Ukrainian embroideries, we find the fantastic creatures mentioned above. There were voices that attributed their presence to the illness and suffering she went through. Maria had Heine-Medina disease, also called poliomyelitis or infantile paralysis, which undoubtedly had a strong impact on her psyche and affected her entire life, including her physical condition. Because of this, he only completed four primary grades, having practically no chance to become known to the general public.

The artist spent the last eight years of her life confined to bed. He painted, taught and received guests until his last moments. He died on August 18, 1997, in the same village where he was born. She was awarded the "Taras Shevchenko" National Award for services to the art of the USSR, and UNESCO declared 2009 as the Year of Maria Prymachenko. In his memory, a small planet was named "14624 Prymachenko". After visiting an exhibition of Prymachenko's works in Paris, Pablo Picasso said: "I bow before the artistic wonders of this brilliant Ukrainian."

The opening of the exhibition will take place on May 10, at 11:00 a.m., in the courtyard of the museum. The exhibition "Ukrainian Universe of Maria Prymachenko" can be visited on the fence of the National Museum of History of Moldova between May 10 and June 10, 2023, 31 August 1989 street, 121A.