“Donbass Odyssey” is an art project which tells stories of cities and towns in Donbass.
Donbass is a heavily industrial region in the East of Ukraine, which since spring 2014 has a war raging on its territory. In order to escape the war (just according to official statistics on the 31st of August 2015) 1 145 645 families from Donbass and Crimea had to move to other cities and villages in Ukraine. And while many people in different places of Ukraine have been very welcoming and willing to help, at the same time there are still stereotypes and prejudices existing within Ukrainian society, when it comes to perceptions of Donbass and its people. These stereotypes and prejudices manifest themselves through indifference, through language attacks, through refusals to rent apartments or to offer jobs… With “Donbass Odyssey” we wanted to destroy a generalized image of Donbass and its people by taking a discussion away from a political discourse and bringing it onto a personal level.
Project authors: Darya Tsymbalyuk, Julia Filipieva and Victor Zasypkin, have conducted in-depth interviews with internally displaced persons from the East of Ukraine. During these interviews people who used to live in Donbass have drawn mental maps of places which they had to abandon. These maps have frozen cities and villages of Eastern Ukraine in a state, in which they had been before the beginning of military actions, a state, in which they stayed in the memory of people. This project is a certain journey to Donbass, which is made possible through personal stories of people.
“Donbass Odyssey” consists of maps of cities and magnets that go on top of those maps. Magnets duplicate images on the map – the places which were important and dear to authors of the maps. Usually magnets remind us of travelling, of visited places, of opportunities, of dreams. They are symbols of a cosy home and a happy life. Magnets symbolize both a presence and an absence of a person and a place. A place, where you would like to return. Magnets of “Donbass Odyssey” are also an image of homes lost by thousands of people. During the run of the project in September 2015 everybody could take a little piece of memories about somebody’s home – take a magnet, and by doing so – integrate those memories into their own lives.
The project got started with a street dinner for all participants of the project, their friends and relatives, other internally displaced persons and Kyiv locals. The event took place in the center of Kyiv, on Kontraktova Ploshcha on Sahaidachnoho square. Such a place was chosen on purpose - it is touristy and it is beloved by Kyiv locals. Also in the past year several volunteer centers that help internally displaced persons opened nearby – one on Frolivska street and one on Frunze street.
For five following days after the opening of the project, the authors were making five artistic interventions into different districts of Kyiv. During these interventions the maps were attached to different metal surfaces: doors, kiosks, a bridge, which were all located in passable and noticeable places. Magnets were left on top of the maps. All the places, in which interventions happened, were announced on a Facebook page of “Donbass Odyssey” fb.com\odyssey.donbass.
“Donbass Odyssey” is a part of a project “Mosaics of the city”, which was implemented by Center for Contemporary Arts Foundation in partnership with Goethe-Institut Ukraine, and financially supported by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany.
“Donbass Odyssey” was also financed by the UN Refugee Agency under the Program of small grants supporting refugee initiatives, which was implemented by “SOS Crimea”.
Donbass is a heavily industrial region in the East of Ukraine, which since spring 2014 has a war raging on its territory. In order to escape the war (just according to official statistics on the 31st of August 2015) 1 145 645 families from Donbass and Crimea had to move to other cities and villages in Ukraine. And while many people in different places of Ukraine have been very welcoming and willing to help, at the same time there are still stereotypes and prejudices existing within Ukrainian society, when it comes to perceptions of Donbass and its people. These stereotypes and prejudices manifest themselves through indifference, through language attacks, through refusals to rent apartments or to offer jobs… With “Donbass Odyssey” we wanted to destroy a generalized image of Donbass and its people by taking a discussion away from a political discourse and bringing it onto a personal level.
Project authors: Darya Tsymbalyuk, Julia Filipieva and Victor Zasypkin, have conducted in-depth interviews with internally displaced persons from the East of Ukraine. During these interviews people who used to live in Donbass have drawn mental maps of places which they had to abandon. These maps have frozen cities and villages of Eastern Ukraine in a state, in which they had been before the beginning of military actions, a state, in which they stayed in the memory of people. This project is a certain journey to Donbass, which is made possible through personal stories of people.
“Donbass Odyssey” consists of maps of cities and magnets that go on top of those maps. Magnets duplicate images on the map – the places which were important and dear to authors of the maps. Usually magnets remind us of travelling, of visited places, of opportunities, of dreams. They are symbols of a cosy home and a happy life. Magnets symbolize both a presence and an absence of a person and a place. A place, where you would like to return. Magnets of “Donbass Odyssey” are also an image of homes lost by thousands of people. During the run of the project in September 2015 everybody could take a little piece of memories about somebody’s home – take a magnet, and by doing so – integrate those memories into their own lives.
The project got started with a street dinner for all participants of the project, their friends and relatives, other internally displaced persons and Kyiv locals. The event took place in the center of Kyiv, on Kontraktova Ploshcha on Sahaidachnoho square. Such a place was chosen on purpose - it is touristy and it is beloved by Kyiv locals. Also in the past year several volunteer centers that help internally displaced persons opened nearby – one on Frolivska street and one on Frunze street.
For five following days after the opening of the project, the authors were making five artistic interventions into different districts of Kyiv. During these interventions the maps were attached to different metal surfaces: doors, kiosks, a bridge, which were all located in passable and noticeable places. Magnets were left on top of the maps. All the places, in which interventions happened, were announced on a Facebook page of “Donbass Odyssey” fb.com\odyssey.donbass.
“Donbass Odyssey” is a part of a project “Mosaics of the city”, which was implemented by Center for Contemporary Arts Foundation in partnership with Goethe-Institut Ukraine, and financially supported by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany.
“Donbass Odyssey” was also financed by the UN Refugee Agency under the Program of small grants supporting refugee initiatives, which was implemented by “SOS Crimea”.
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