Lost Dreams

Lost Dreams is a suspended constellation of paper planes folded from vintage and contemporary Ukrainian children's books. Floating in space, they recall a simple childhood game, the moment when a sheet of paper becomes flight and imagination has no weight. Pages once meant to teach, comfort, and open the world are transformed into fragile carriers of memory.

Childhood play is not innocent decoration. It is where the future is rehearsed – where trust, freedom, and possibility first take shape. In the context of war, this space collapses. The sky that once held laughter and paper planes becomes a source of fear, and dreams are interrupted not because they were impossible, but because time was taken away before they could grow into lives.

According to official data, hundreds of children have been killed and thousands injured since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, while the true scale of loss will only become known after the war ends. This single factual trace enters the work not as proof, but as weight – a reminder that behind every number stands a future that will never arrive.

The installation references Mriya (Dream), the world's largest aircraft, designed and built in Ukraine and destroyed at the outset of the full-scale invasion. Its absence echoes through the suspended planes, connecting a child's gesture of play to a collective dream that was violently cut short. Hovering between ascent and fall, the planes mourn not only what was taken, but the possibility of becoming – the lives, paths, and futures that were never allowed to unfold.