A POIGNANT memorial paying tribute to women and children who died after a Russian bombing in Ukraine has opened.

Six months on since the Russian invasion in Ukraine, an exhibition memorialising the children killed in Mariupol has opened in the Merz Barn, Elterwater in Langdale.

The Children of Mariupol memorial is an exhibition created by a group of artists in Langdale, with help from the Polish volunteer community in Manchester.

The team has constructed a major public art memorial paying tribute to the 600 women and children who died in the Russian bombing of the Art School building in Mariupol on March 16.

The work is in two pieces: the bunker, set in the trees to the right of the path to the Merz Barn, and an inscription in mown grass on the grassy hill above.

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The Ukrainian word for children is дітей and the group has carved the word out on the valley hillside.

Organisers say the project is ‘probably the biggest land art project in the North’ which, along with the Ukrainian architecture pavilion, will stand as a fitting testament and memorial to those killed in Mariupol.

Designed by artist Ian Hunter, the exhibition commemorates one of the most infamous acts of the current Russian invasion of the Ukraine.

In February 2022, the town of Mariupol came under fierce attack from the Russian bombers, and the decision was taken to move the women and children sheltering in the hospital to the more strongly built Mariupol Art School.

To protect them there the word ‘children’, in Russian, was painted in large letters on the car parks at either end of the building. The Russians took this as a signal to blast the building to smithereens, killing over 600 women and children.

The second piece of the exhibition – the dark bunker- represents a monument against fascism. With the help of local farmer and contractor Mike Edmondson and landscape contractor Dave Middleton, artists cut, trimmed and realigned most of the large mature storm-felled trees to build a giant log cabin.

Mike and Dave too were inspired by the ongoing heroic struggle of the Ukrainian people against Putin’s fascist military regime and gave their full support to the project.

The exhibition coincides with the 75th anniversary celebrations of Kurt Schwitters Merz Barn project in Langdale. 

On view will be exhibitions about Kurt Schwitters by contemporary artists, the heritage of Harry Pierce and Cylinders Gardens and proposals for a future Kurt Schwitters Merzbau Art Museum.

The Children of Mariupol project and the accompanying Sculpture Trail and Exhibitions will remain open until the end of October 2022, 10am to 5.30 pm – subject to an absence of serious gale damage.