This is one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. It's 8 1/5 minute long, and you'll need to pay attention. Amazing and deeply moving. Read the description below first, then take a few minutes to watch this:
This video shows the winner of "Ukraine’s 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 woman’s 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 woman’s 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 there’s
surely no bigger compliment."
Please take time out to see this amazing piece of art.
