Petro tries to light an old stove which, like a centenary tree, had stood there watching the world metamorphose. The new borders, the advent of radiators. That stove has remained stationary, but geography has moved, geography changes, and at a high price. The stove dates back to the Austro-Hungarian period; along with other surviving cast iron souls it stood there unused and distant like a monument. Now Petro, who was born after the fall of the Berlin Wall, tries to put a relic that dates back to over a century ago back into operation. A quieter, safer world? An illusion ready to collapse in a war when the stoves had no alternative.
The small flame that Petro protects and places next to the Austro-Hungarian stove illuminates the photograph like certain candles in a painting by La Tour. And on the other hand, in the foreground, there is also a candle. Substitute for torches and electric lights on blackout nights, a symbolic flame to celebrate new years, honor the dead, pray to divinities. Now it only serves to shed light, while Petro lights the ancient stove, in the already wintery darkness of Lviv.
THE DOSSIER Shots of war