The experience is not without hope.
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Near the top of the pit, in bronze, we see the figure of a woman grasping the hand of a boy, struggling to pull him out. They are part of the few who survived. We know that even in the midst of despair, grace still prevails.
Most memorials are designed for reflection upon a moment in history. They allow us to reflect upon things in a distanced, aesthetic way. We stand apart, saddened by the event but reassured by the fact that it is over. We remember those lost by standing briefly outside their monument and then moving on. It is sad and it is commemorative. But we are allowed to stay outside, allowed to be comfortable, allowed to be safe.
Requiem takes us physically into the pit and encloses us in its reality. We are part of the people who died there. The images surround us, enclosing us. The experience is seared into our visual, aural and spatial memory.
In order for change to happen in the world, we have to be made aware that it could be us. We have to be brought to our knees with that possibility. The point of Requiem is that it is still happening. Babyn Yar should not be a single event nicely memorialized and tucked away. It can become a representation of all the horrors we humans have brought - and are still bringing - upon each other. Terrorism and genocide are as real today as they were in 1941.
We cannot afford to be complacent.
A poem engraved in the concrete pathway challenges us with a call to action - to not turn a blind eye on today's injustices, to take responsibility, to speak out against the atrocities being committed today. "Schindler's List" affected millions of people in its dramatic portrayal of real people caught in a scenario of unspeakably brutal dehumanization. With Requiem I will create a setting that is equally and unflinchingly honest, enveloping the viewer in a three dimensional world populated by ghostly figures of those massacred at Babyn Yar. My goal is to make a sculptural environment so powerful that no person will leave it without being profoundly changed.
