Black Commander
An intervention on the monument to Soviet commander Mykola Shchors in Kyiv, accompanied by an exhibition at the Museum of Kyiv History. The action and exhibition addressed the role of sculpture in public space and the reinterpretation of Soviet monuments.
Andrii Siguntsov participated as artist and curator.
About the project
Black Commander approaches the monument to Mykola Shchors in Kyiv as a question about sculpture, authority and the future of inherited public images. The equestrian figure belongs to a long tradition in which the mounted male hero embodies influence and power. Yet the understanding of sculpture has moved far beyond the monument and its established social function.
The project connects this shift with Ukraine’s reassessment of Soviet cultural heritage. After the wave of decommunisation, the Shchors monument remained an unresolved object: its continued presence near Symon Petliura Street made the contradictions of the urban landscape especially visible.
The curatorial proposition is to create a dialogue around preservation and reinterpretation. What happens when a sculpture’s original purpose no longer commands agreement? Can the object be encountered outside the authority it once represented? The work treats these questions as part of the changing life of sculpture and the public space it occupies.