Mitryasova, O. CHRONICLES OF THIRST: DOCUMENTING MYKOLAIV'S WATER SECURITY CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS IN A WAR-AFFECTED CITY: Monograph. Mykolaiv: PMBSNU, 2026, 124 p.

CHRONICLES OF THIRST: DOCUMENTING MYKOLAIV'S WATER SECURITY CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS IN A WAR-AFFECTED CITY 4.1. AMULET ON THE WALL: "WHALE HOLDING THE CITY" Art during the war in Mykolaiv became not just a way to decorate the mutilated walls, but a powerful tool for reflection and support of the collective spirit. One of the most iconic street art objects that appeared in the midst of the water crisis was a mural that combined the maritime identity of the city and the belief in its steadfastness. This work is popularly known as "The Whale" or "Nicholas on the Whale". Mykolaiv artists Alyona Voloshyna and Dmytro Slepukha worked on the mural. The work was completed in the summer of 2022, becoming a symbolic gift to the city for the winter holidays in an extremely difficult year. The mural is located in the Central district of the city, on the wall of the house No. 15 on Velyka Morskaya Street (Fig. 4.1). The composition of the mural "Big Fish" skillfully appeals to ancient, almost archetypal mythological ideas about the universe. In the iconography of many peoples of the world, there is an image of a cosmogonic animal — a giant tortoise, an elephant or a whale — holding the earthly firmament on its back. This is a symbol of support, without which the world will plunge into primordial chaos. However, in the Mykolaiv interpretation of 2022, this image has lost its abstraction, acquiring extremely sharp, modern and deeply local meanings. In the center of the plot we see a majestic blue whale. It floats not just in the oceanic depths, but through an amazing expanse where the deep blue of the water merges with the infinity of star-studded space. This is a metaphor for Mykolaiv as a separate universe — self-sufficient, proud and lonely in its struggle. The whale here is not just an animal, but the embodiment of the very vitality of water, which in the year of the creation of the mural became the highest value for the city and at the same time the greatest pain. On its back, this leviathan carries not abstract structures, but the recognizable, throbbing heart of Mykolaiv. The bowls were collected on the "island" formed on the back of a whale, the genetic code of urban architecture. The center of the composition is the building of the Admiralty - the starting point of the Nikolaev time. Its spire, confidently directed upwards, symbolizes the continuity of generations of shipbuilders. Next to it rises the Shukhov Tower, a steel openwork structure, which, in the conditions of the water blockade of 2022, turned from an engineering monument into a sacred symbol of hope. It seems to remind us that the city that tamed the water more than a century ago is able to do it again. This "city island" on the back of a whale is an image of Mykolaiv as a fortress. When the storms of war raged around and the infrastructure was torn apart under the blows, the inhabitants felt exactly like this: on a small piece of native land, which is kept afloat only thanks to supernatural endurance. The whale personifies that invisible force — 99