WHO WE WERE W.UKRAIŃSKA, VALERY PUZIK

Who We Were is a book about people at war. About voices, names, and call signs. About Dali and Ruta, protesters and pacifists, the living and the dead. Stories about Avdiivka, Lviv, Odesa, Kherson, and the Black Sea. Reflections on literature and painting in the war zone, on memory, dreams and delusions, fatigue and the illusory nature of reality, the smell of war and the constant Groundhog Day, changes in the consciousness of people who are between the world of the dead and the world of the living. About the air you breathe and cannot breathe in, and the clear and bright sky, where the stars are as clear as day. Valerii Puzik combines documentary accuracy with artistic reflection, recording memories, dreams, conversations and feelings that, like fragments of reality, make up the mosaic of experience of Ukrainian soldiers, artists and volunteers. This is a story not only about struggle, but also about inner metamorphoses from youthful dreaminess to war-hardened resolve, from call signs to attempts to reclaim one's name.