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CADA_VERI
C AD A_VERI

The work “Cada_veri” by Angelo Orazio Pregoni is a civilians and leaving their bodies on the streets and in
powerful artistic installation that denounces the horrors mass graves. The images from Bucha showed corpses
of the war in Ukraine, particularly the massacre in with their hands tied, signs of torture and mutilation,
Bucha. The painting was followed by the creation of provoking international outrage and calls for justice.
a raft with three corpses, made in collaboration with Pregoni’s work aims to be a visual and emotional
sculptor Marco Ventura, which echoed the painting testimony to these events, reminding the public of the
and was illegally installed in the Darsena of Milan. But importance of not forgetting the victims and leaving a
even earlier, Angelo Orazio Pregoni had painted, on a memory to history that can restore dignity to those dead.
piece of burlap, in the street, placing three actors on Through his disturbing, raw, and direct representation,
the ground who simulated being corpses. He did this just Pregoni evokes in us both an empathetic and historical
a few days after the Bucha massacre, which occurred awareness: thus, he not only denounces a tragic
in March 2022. Pregoni explained that the aim of the historical event but also places himself in an artistic
work was to create a pure image that transcended the tradition that uses painting to explore and represent
boundaries of war, transforming the dead of Bucha into the human condition in all its complexity. It is worth
a monument sculpted into the souls of people, as art noting how Pregoni manages to give sacredness to the
has the duty to remove all hypocrisy and bring humans bodies, with a masterful compositional use of converging
closer to reality and compassion. On April 26, 2022, at lines that create triangular formations upward and
the Porta Genova promenade, Angelo Orazio Pregoni lead toward the lateral edges of the canvas, virtually
painted live on a piece of burlap measuring one meter breaking every perspective and allowing the bodies to
seventy by one meter. The subject of the painting was transcend. Each brushstroke is infused with pathos, and
the representation of three human bodies, arranged every horror painted by the Master is pure empathy.
iconographically like the corpses in Bucha. The artist
positioned three people on the ground simulating dead
bodies. It was a rainy day with a gray sky: the painting
performance had a unique impact, succeeding in
denouncing what was happening in Ukraine. Passersby
walked by distractedly and curiously for the time it
took to snap a photo, some stayed attentive for a few
minutes or an hour, some were critical or involved, but
no one was indifferent. Pregoni’s performance aimed
to create a memory and give dignity to the civilian
dead of Bucha, especially during those days when
some claimed it was all fake: the corpses, the war, the
massacre, the suffering, the bombings… everything, they
said, was the result of movie sets and conspiracies. The
event was covered by ANSA, the artist was interviewed,
and the news video was picked up by major national
media outlets. The public reacted with shock and
reflection to the work, which was seen as a highly
impactful communicative gesture and denunciation. The
subsequent unauthorized representation of the floating
corpses also stirred intense emotions, blending artistic
and emotional matter.
The Bucha massacre was one of the most tragic
episodes of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. During the
occupation, Russian forces committed war crimes, killing

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