Episode 3: Life in Odesa One Year On - How a Master Sculptor Finds Inspiration in War

On the first anniversary of the war with Russia, Ukrainian sculptor Mikhaïl Reva speaks with Vivian Bercovici about deriving meaning from from the horror of the senseless destruction, and discusses his complex ancestry. Mourning the recent loss of his mother, who was Jewish, Reva- who does not identify with any particular organized religion, surprises even himself as he shares the origins his family’s deep ties to Ukraine. So much traces back to a vicious pogrom in 1903) in which his great grandparents were murdered, leaving their young son an orphan. That was Misha’s grandfather, raised in Soviet orphanages during the Nazi years. I expected an immersion in a master’s work and got that, and so much more, from our fascinating conversation.

Please visit our Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to see more photographs and video of Reva’s extraordinary work in progress interpreting the war: “The Russian World”.An early model of Mikhail Reva’s sculpture – “Bucha” – commemorating the victims of the Russian massacre of Ukrainian civilians.

Untitled, sculpture assembled with shrapnel and shards of war

Misha Reva discussing his work on the war with Julian Milkis, his friend,, my cousin and clarinet virtuoso

remains of a Russian tank, which will form the basis of a sculpture

model of  candelabra sculpture to be made for the grave of Misha’s recently deceased mother

Me with Misha in the entrance to his Odesa studio