ZMINA: Future for Ukraine

Future for Ukraine

Curator: Anna Sarvira

This year, the LUSTR illustrators residency in Prague invited four Ukrainian artists with the help of the Ukrainian Pictoric Illustrators Club, and the ZMINA:Rebuilding program. As I was invited to curate the residency and to choose the artists and the topic, I decided to focus on Future for Ukraine during our stay in Prague. The residency provides a unique platform to showcase the talent of Ukrainian artists, engage in cultural exchange, and explore themes of rebuilding and cultural restoration amidst the backdrop of war. Through a 22-day long stay in Prague, followed by participation in the LUSTR International Illustration and Comics Festival, the project aims to empower the artists, foster dialogue, and promote cross-cultural understanding.

Thoughts of the future have become a continuous source of questions for Ukrainians, but the questions aren’t of a better tomorrow in the distant future. For Ukrainians, to think about the future means to think about the next hours and days. Are my power banks charged in case of a blackout? Do I have enough water at home in case of a newly-imposed curfew? Where is the nearest bomb shelter, and how will my kids get there from the playground? Making your mind up about a future in a few years has become a luxury. That’s why the residency will focus on precisely that: What will life be like in Ukraine in the far future? Is that something we can imagine at the moment, and how do Ukrainian artists think about that question?

The Future for Ukraine project is implemented by LUSTR festival of illustration and Pictoric with support of IZOLYATSIA foundation, Trans Europe Halles and Malý Berlín and co-financed by the ZMINA: Rebuilding program, created with the support of the European Union under a dedicated call for proposals to support Ukrainian displaced people and the Ukrainian Cultural and Creative Sectors.