KURENIVKA Apply · 2027
The Hedgehog Temple on the open playa: a faceted steel hedgehog head and a spiky netted body, bikes and people around, mountains behind

Art · 2023 · Burning Man Honorarium Art

The Hedgehog Temple

A memorial built from anti-tank hedgehogs, for the Ukrainians who will never make it to Burning Man because the war took them.

In the first days of the war the planning horizon was tonight. Then it stretched to a week, then to a month, and finally far enough to imagine going back to Burning Man. But going back after the war meant saying something, and what was there to say? It was all grief. The only thing Kurenivka could honestly bring was a memorial.

That year's theme was Animalia. The idea came at once: a hedgehog built from anti-tank hedgehogs, the steel crosses that became a symbol of Ukrainian defense, covered in netting like a real one. In the first days of the invasion Ukrainians built some 300,000 of them to stop tanks and protect their homes.

The idea came at once, and it was personal: at the start of the war Yaro's construction company in Odesa welded hundreds of anti-tank hedgehogs to defend the city. More than 700 projects applied for an Honorarium that year, and about 70 were selected. The key art team was Oleksandr Slobodianiuk, Mitya Zinoviev and Leila Zhdanova, with production at Sasha's and Mitya's workshops in Kyiv.

The temple was crafted from 6,000 pounds of steel and 100 anti-tank hedgehogs. It was dedicated to the Ukrainian creative community lost in the war, and alongside it the camp raised money for medical evacuation vehicles for the front.

Two Petrykivka artists from the camp, Varvara Logvyn and Marina Malyarenko, painted anti-tank hedgehogs on the playa in Ukraine's UNESCO-listed folk style. Varvara, a Kyiv artist with nine years in a Petrykivka studio, had started in the summer of 2022 by painting the steel hedgehogs on the streets of Kyiv, at VDNH and on Independence Square. Marina, a Petrykivka artist and teacher, ran a workshop in camp where burners learned the brushstrokes themselves. One painted hedgehog stood in Kurenivka, another in Center Camp.

It became a place where people came to cry for Ukraine. Thousands did. Their stories hung on its posts. On September 3 the photo frames were moved to the Temple of the Heart, and on September 5 they burned with it.

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“It was a place where people came to cry for Ukraine. When the crane lowered it to the ground, all of those tears passed through me.”

Yaro Korets

In their words

Voices

“We decided to tell not heroic legends, but the pain of loss.”

Yaroslav Korets On what to bring to the playa in wartime Bird in Flight, 2023 · translated from Ukrainian

“In two days, I shed all my tears. It seems that we have hit everyone right in the heart.”

Oleksandr Slobodianiuk Co-artist of the Hedgehog Temple Ukrainska Pravda, 2023

“We brought dozens of stories of fallen cultural figures to show that this war is not a ‘military conflict’, it is a people's war in which every conscious Ukrainian takes part.”

Oleksandr Slobodianiuk Co-artist Ukrainian World Congress, 2023

Film

Photographs

The crew with Ukrainian flags before leaving for the playa, 2023. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoPainting a Petrykivka pattern onto an anti-tank hedgehog in the camp shade, 2023Varvara Logvyn and Marina Malyarenko painting anti-tank hedgehogs in camp, 2023Cycling past the KURENIVKA truck on arrival. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoUnloading the Kurenivka truck in camp. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoAssembling the first steel hedgehogs in the dust. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoA volunteer riding past the build site with a Ukrainian flag. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoAnti-tank hedgehogs welded and stacked on the build site. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoThe temple rising beside camp, shell sections on the ground. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoA crane lifting a spiked section next to the frame. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoWorkers guiding a spike section on the crane hook. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoA builder in a hard hat climbing between the spikes. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoThe spiked shell lifted onto its legs. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoThe finished spikes against the afternoon sky. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoThe temple backlit by the setting sun. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoThree cyclists riding past the temple and its crane. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoThe temple in silhouette at sunset. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoVisitors gathering under the temple. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoRiding across the playa with Ukrainian flags. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoThe temple's face, a crowd around it. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoSearchlights beaming out of the temple at night. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoThe temple lit red at night, people around it. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoMusicians playing an embroidered guitar under the temple. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoThe temple in a dust storm. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoA cyclist with a Ukrainian flag in the dust. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoA costumed visitor with a flag on her bicycle. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoTwo women in embroidered dresses walking on the playa. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoThe camp group photo in front of the KURENIVKA truck. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoA hand-painted Petrykivka pattern on one of the hedgehogs. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoFireworks on Burn Night. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoA structure in flames on Burn Night. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoA burn on the playa at night. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoThe crane and the half-built shell, tank traps in front. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoAt the wheel of the telehandler. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoA builder in a pink hat working inside the timber frame. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoThe temple head with its painted face. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoThe temple lit at night with searchlights and art cars around. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoTwo visitors posing in front of the temple. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoPeople walking out to the temple across the open playa. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoA builder standing on top of the spiked shell. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoThe shell frame on the ground, the sun behind. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoClose up of the spikes against a deep blue sky. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoThe Sterling crane arriving at the site. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoBuilders at work on the spikes. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoThe crew carrying a steel beam across the site. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoThe shell raised on its legs, ladders beneath. Photo: Mykyta VashchenkoThe authors of the sculpture, Oleksandr Slobodianiuk and Yaroslav Korets, in front of the assembled frameThe temple at night in the dust, white light beams radiating from itThe temple alone on the open playa. Photo: Gurps ChawlaBacklit by the sun, spikes in silhouette. Photo: Gurps ChawlaUnder the temple: plywood hedgehogs seen from below. Photo: Gurps ChawlaIn silhouette at sunriseOn the playa, 2023: a builder holding a steel base plate, the hedgehog's spikes behindTest assembly under storm clouds, the crane holding the headNight light test in Kyiv, glowing redLoading the containerCampers in blue and yellow in front of the temple. Photo: Gurps ChawlaThe crew under the templeThe Hedgehog Temple at night in the dust, white light beams radiating from itThe Hedgehog Temple with the main Burning Man Temple in the distanceA single anti-tank hedgehog painted with Petrykivka flowers on the playaClose-up of Petrykivka flowers painted on a black steel beamA woman in an embroidered robe and floral crown riding a bike with a Ukrainian flag toward the templeThe temple lit at night on the open playa, tank traps in frontA telehandler lifting the hedgehog's head into placeThe spiked body on its frame with the lift beside itPainting details by hand in the shadeThe crew gathered under the temple at nightPainting tank traps beside the build siteRiggers standing on the spiked backThe crane over the spikes against the sunA section of the shell hanging from the crane

Credits

Artists
Yaroslav Korets, Oleksandr Slobodianiuk, Kurenivka art group
Architects
Kiril Tsuman, Grisha Zotov
Steel frame
Mitya Zinoviev's team
Petrykivka painting
Varvara Logvyn, Marina Malyarenko
Crew
Anna Panchenko, Dmytro Pavlenko, Igor Panchenko, Ivan Alekseev, Leila Zhdanova, Mykyta Vashchenko, Mitya Zinoviev, Marina Malyarenko, Varvara Logvyn, Yaroslava Bagriy
Photography
Mykyta Vashchenko, Gurps Chawla (Red Pilot Photography), Oleksandr Slobodianiuk, Kurenivka camp

Thank you to every volunteer, partner and member of Kurenivka camp, without whom this project would not have been possible, and to the Burning Man community for standing with Ukrainian burners.

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