Using the works from the Khmelnytskyi Regional Museum of Art collection featured in the exhibition as examples, visitors can trace how Ukrainian artists interpret the image of birds and what ideas they imbue it with, as well as observe how the diversity of techniques allows them to transform images of various birds into symbols and metaphors.

Part of the exhibition features works by Inna Pas, an artist from Khmelnytskyi.

In her series “What Kind of Bird Are You?”, the artist seeks to broaden our understanding of the birds of Ukrainian fauna.

We have a large number of species whose existence we are not even aware of, limiting ourselves to knowledge of only the most common ones—such as the white stork, the gray crow, and the house sparrow. Yet there are countless species listed under the Bern Convention that require special attention, not to mention those that, much to our regret, have already found their way into the pages of Ukraine’s Red Book.

The artist hopes that when you are asked, “What kind of bird would you be?”—it won’t leave you stumped, but rather inspire reflection and self-analysis. So that you reflect not only on the color of the feathers or the size of the wings, but also on how this bird behaves in nature, what its habits are, what it eats, where it lives, how it sings, and what it prioritizes.

So that this question prompts viewers to gain a deeper understanding of themselves through the image of the bird with which they identify, helping them to realize their inner state and the reasons behind it, and so that these paintings briefly bring back that childlike wonder that surely once lived within each of us.