Work combines images engraved on metal film boxes and the fact of their exclusion from the permitted. The elements selected by the author quote images of war from Ukrainian poetic cinema: weapons, monuments, uniforms and their wearers, which inhabit and coexist with the “folkloric” landscapes of Ukraine. The film frames seem to break through to the surface and testify to the inseparability of the Soviet from the Ukrainian and from the cinema shelved by party bureaucrats. The decorated metal boxes are physical carriers of films; they serve to protect and at the same time hide the film material from the destructive circumstances of the environment. However, in the absence of content, the empty containers themselves take on the function of image and storytelling. They embody the materiality of the image and leave an open question: what is a monument to the moving image? 

The work is based on film storage boxes that were found within the walls of the Dovzhenko Centre, although they did not meet the standards for storing original film reels. The installation also includes original shelves from the film storage facility, assembled into a new storage structure.