With his work the “Fountain of Exhaustion”, shown at the Venice Biennale in 2022 right after the outbreak of the war, Pavlo Makov emphasizes that Ukraine’s independence has been in question for many years, despite the fact that Ukrainians have always identified themselves culturally and historically independent. For hundreds of years, Ukrainians have lived in the same territories. Captured and humiliated by their neighbours, they stayed united. In his work “1000 Years of Independence” Makov depicts numerous continuous sacrifices of generations, reinforced further by the current war.