I’m Fine: Ukrainian Installation at Burning Man Features Over 10 Tonnes of War Artefacts from De-Occupied Territories

The annual Burning Man 2024 contemporary art festival, which began the day before in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, USA, featured the Ukrainian installation I'm Fine. The sculpture, inspired by the famous meme, was created by artist Oleksiy Say and Ukrainian Witness founder Vitaliy Deynega and is 32 metres long, 7 metres high, and weighs more than 10 tonnes.

This year's installation is based on war artefacts collected in the de-occupied territories. According to Vitaliy Deynega, the installation consists of various elements. Most of them are shot and torn by shrapnel ‘pedestrian crossing’ signs. There are twelve of them in total. These are about people killed by the Russians at the beginning of the war simply for crossing the road or cycling on business. There are two signs that say ‘children be careful’. One of them was taken near a school completely destroyed by Russians in the Kherson region.

 ‘I'm Fine is the name of our work at this year's American Burning Man. If you look at it from a distance, it's just beautiful and bright, almost toy-like letters. But when you get closer to them, you see that they are covered with elements of surfaces that have been damaged by Russian missiles, shells and bullets,’ says Vitaliy. 

There is a piece of a shopping centre. One of the best in Kherson. There was a Mac and a bunch of different shops. It was destroyed by tanks in the first days of the full-scale war. There are large road signs with the names of settlements: from Velyka Krynytsia to Kherson, Chernihiv and Kharkiv. Each of these exhibits is practically a museum piece. For example, there were only three such large signs in Kherson.

In addition, there are gates and pieces of fences. For example, a large and heavy iron gate from Makariv that was torn out and crushed by an explosive wave. They are about ordinary people whose only fault was that they grew cucumbers and potatoes and lived in Ukraine. And they were killed purely because of this. There are also pieces of solar panels and transformers that show that the Russians are not only killing people, but are also committing ecocide, destroying green energy and not only. There are pieces of sports and children's playgrounds from parts of the Kherson region where civilians have been killed or left. There is a gate from the yard of a house that was destroyed to the ground level.

‘One American said that there was so much grief and death in our installation that it was hard to bear and cried. Another said that it had a lot of strength, because if we were victims, not warriors, we wouldn't have brought it here,’ Vitalii Deynega recalls.

‘We react less and less to missiles and death, grief and the extra effort you have to make to not go crazy with the fears of war and the guilt of not doing enough. We are really ‘normal,’ but our normal is more terrifying than nightmares. But we live, fight and even try to be happy sometimes. We are ‘okay’.  We are even ready to sincerely ask the world ‘how are you?’, he adds. 

Together with artist Oleksiy Say, a team of 25 people worked on the installation, many of whom are serving at the frontline. Oleksiy also created a sculpture for last year's Burning Man, Phoenix, which became the first Ukrainian installation to take part in the traditional burning of figures at the festival. Five works out of more than a hundred are selected for this purpose.

This year's Burning Man festival runs from 25 August to 2 September.

This annual festival has been held in the desert of the US state of Nevada since 1986. During this event, people from different countries demonstrate their own cultural performances. Artists from all over the world take part in the construction of Black Rock City, a temporary metropolis where various art objects are located.