From October 3 to 6, 2025, the Jubilee of Hope, an active nonviolence initiative promoted by the European Movement for Nonviolent Action (MEAN), traveled across Ukraine with an expedition of over one hundred Italian and European activists, including Doriano Zurlo, coordinator of the trip, Angelo Moretti, spokesperson for MEAN, and Alessandro Alliaudi, ambassador for Rebirth/Third Paradise.

After collecting their voices in the article Kharkiv, the Third Paradise Resists: Three Voices for a Peace Built Together, we continue our story of the project today with a new testimony: that of Olena Olenina, professor of art history at the Beketov University of Urban Economics in Kharkiv, who coordinated the artistic activities related to the Third Paradise symbol. A story intertwined with that of the first in-depth study dedicated to the context and intentions of the Jubilee, The Third Paradise in Kharkiv: Art and Hope at the Heart of the Jubilee in Ukraine.

"Even though living and working in Kharkiv today is difficult, we continue to do so," says Olenina. "We continue to welcome guests, organize cultural activities, and create opportunities for encounter. Every artistic or spiritual event here takes on a profound meaning, and an international event like the Jubilee of Hope had an immense significance."

During those days, Beketov University, which also hosts an art program, became a hub of the project. Faculty, students, and activists shared a collective experience of creation and reflection around Michelangelo Pistoletto's symbol of the Third Paradise, a universal emblem of co-creation and harmony between nature and technology.

For the occasion, Olena Olenina and her department conceived a collaborative art workshop. First-year students, who until now had only attended remotely due to the war, were assigned a special task: to imagine and draw their own vision of the Third Paradise. The works were then exhibited in an interior space of the university, transformed for the occasion into a symbolic peace gallery.

At the same time, the faculty created their own collective mural, using materials and elements typical of the university. When the MEAN delegation arrived in Kharkiv, Italian and European activists joined the creative process, leaving their signatures on the paintings and contributing to the symbolic dialogue between those resisting and those in solidarity.

“It was a lively and shared process,” explains Olenina. “An act of co-creation that united generations and cultures. But it doesn't end there: the faculty will choose the most significant work, and we will create it as a permanent mural on campus. It's a sustainable project that will continue over time.”

In the works created, the Third Paradise has become a visual narrative of the human condition in times of war. "In one of the outer circles, we depicted a man, a symbol of nature and the original paradise," explains the professor. "In the second circle, we painted an airplane, a symbol of technological civilization but also, sadly, of the war that crosses our skies. In the center, however, is the university: a place where science, creativity, youth, and wisdom meet, gathering positive energy to build the new paradise we all dream of."

During the project, the video message that Michelangelo Pistoletto personally sent to the students and faculty of Kharkiv was shown: simple yet powerful words, an invitation to continue creating, working, living, and above all, to never give up hope. "Those words moved us deeply," says Olenina. "They were sincere, full of emotion and energy. It was a message from artist to artist, from man to man. Our students felt it as a direct encouragement not to give up, to transform suffering into creation."

Olena Olenina hopes that the Jubilee experience won't be an isolated incident, but the beginning of an ongoing dialogue between Kharkiv and Cittadellarte. "I hope there will be more projects like this, offering human contact and creative activities," she concludes. "Direct contact between people is what allows us to truly understand each other. Only in this way, with joint efforts, can we make Michelangelo Pistoletto's vision a reality: a Third Paradise possible."