Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

Created with assistance and support from the Chernobyl district authorities, van Helten’s artwork is the first street art mural project to be created within the Chernobyl restricted area.

Installed in Reactor 5, a disused cooling tower that was under construction at the time of the accident, Van Helten’s mural recreates the work of photojournalist Igor Kostin. Kostin captured the first images of the disaster – risking exposure to dangerous radiation levels to document the still smouldering Reactor 4 within fourteen hours of the explosion.²The photographer would go on to become a passionate activist, committed to documenting the on-going social and environmental impacts of the disaster. Kostin’s photographs shared with the world the stories of the liquidators, soldiers, scientists, and residents who were impacted by the catastrophe. Widely credited with creating a global perspective of the tragedy through his photojournalism, Kostin passed away in 2015.³

In the lead-up to the thirtieth anniversary of the disaster, Van Helten collaborated with Ukraine filmmaker Geo Leros to document the creation of the work in a short film titled Under the Line. Premiering on 26 April 2016 – exactly thirty years since the explosion at Reactor 4 – the film portrays van Helten at work inside the reactor and the eerie landscape of the abandoned power plant.