Zakierzonian country

title:	*Zakierzonian country*
year:	2024
dimensions:	300/140 cm
technique:	patinated steel

description:

Zakierzonian country, Zakerzon, the area beyond the Curzon Line, adopted by the great powers as Poland's eastern border. According to some Ukrainian historians, these lands were located in the former ethnic and historical Ukrainian territory, namely the Lemko region and the San River region, as well as parts of the Lubaczów region, the Rawa region, the Sokal region, the Chełm region, and Podlasie. This area covered 19,000 km² and was inhabited by approximately 1.5 million people. In 1945-47, it remained within Polish borders, settled by ethnic minorities of Boykos and Lemkos. The UPA's (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) policy of ethnic cleansing, begun in Volhynia in 1943, became common practice in these lands in 1945. The partisans viewed Zakerzone as originally Ukrainian territory and murdered the Polish population with impunity, burning their farms. The Polish authorities attempted to resist using retaliatory tactics, slaughtering entire Ukrainian villages.

A symbolic reference to the tools of crime through inspiration from the original form of rural tools - scythes, sickles, forks, axes, hoes, hooks, flails, etc., hand-hammered, welded, which could have been used by the perpetrators for killing during the years of ethnic conflicts.

website implementation: Brandrei.com