This year, the DOCU/SYNTHESIS program will consist of the exhibition LAB: DOCU/SYNTHESIS x Ukraine War Archive, an interdisciplinary art laboratory. Throughout the year, artists explored documentary materials and developed their projects by reflecting on themes of memory and cultural heritage. During the 22nd Docudays UA, the exhibition will be complemented by artist talks and a special event featuring a thematic discussion.
Exhibition The Way We Remember
The LAB: DOCU/SYNTHESIS x Ukraine War Archive included an open call, a themed educational module for artists, mentorship sessions, and the creation of artworks. Based on documentary materials, the participating artists produced projects that span various media and aspects of the central theme.
The exhibition features: documentary films (including VR formats), a painting, multimedia installations incorporating video, photography, graphics, sound, a monumental mural, crocheted objects, and memory maps.
“The exhibition within the DOCU/SYNTHESIS program is a result of a year-long interdisciplinary art laboratory that began in June last year. I’m glad we’ve managed to create a unique space for thoughtful dialogue about what we are living through right now. Our exhibition venue is located in Podil — the festival center, a historical district, a hub of cultural heritage, and a place where the community has defended its right to the city for many years,” shares the curator of the Laboratory and the interdisciplinary art program of Docudays UA, Oleksandra Nabieva.
The artworks were selected on a competitive basis. Roman Bondarchuk, Art Director of Docudays UA and co-founder of the Ukraine War Archive, comments:
“I was amazed by the number of applications we received — I didn’t expect so many bright ideas and such enthusiasm to bring them to life in inventive forms. I’m glad we managed to create a platform for developing ideas into complete artistic statements. And that the Archive will be enriched with a collection of artistic works, which we plan to exhibit internationally.”
Following the open call and educational module, a number of final projects were completed by the artists with support from mentors and the Laboratory’s curator.
Film Archive of Silence
Vartan Markaryan, Vadym Makhitka
A 360-degree virtual reality documentary film. The piece explores memory and the preservation of cultural heritage in museums, focusing on the Poltava Regional Museum of Local Lore — a prime example of Ukrainian modernist architecture designed by Vasyl Krychevsky.
Film (Re)Covered Memory
Oleksandra Pletenetska, Anna Mikheienko
A group of activists fights to preserve a historical landmark in central Kyiv — the building at 37 Reitarska Street — which is under threat of demolition by developers. Their struggle echoes past events, when the Soviet regime tried to erase Ukrainian identity. This uncomfortable heritage becomes a foundation for memory and the future.
Installation Sleep Paralysis
Sofiia Korotkevych
Sleep — one of the few universal sources of restoration — turns into torment during wartime, when night deepens stress and fear. This installation reflects the daily psychological toll of war, which, despite becoming routine, still feels like a nightmare one can’t escape.
Project Sensitive Content
Viktoriia Lykholot
An interdisciplinary project based on the craft of crocheting. During the war, newsfeeds became flooded with thousands of horrifying images, reports, and videos. This project is an attempt to speak about war without showing it — through the calming act of crocheting, which contrasts with violence by relaxing the body and mind.
Project Stone Embroideries of Nova Kakhovka
Viktoriia Rozentsveih
An interdisciplinary project focused on the stone embroideries — ornamental panels created by Hryhorii Dovzhenko in the 1950s during the construction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant. These artworks adorned nearly 180 buildings in the city of Nova Kakhovka.
Installation Archive at War
Volodymyr Prylutskyi, Alik Darman
An audiovisual installation based on the artists’ experience in the Film Processing Workshop archive. The work explores the theme of collective memory and seeks to convey the decay of film heritage while emphasizing the urgency of its preservation.
Painting Absence
Karina Synytsia
This project addresses the absence of an archive, raising questions about memory, time, and how collective experience is preserved. In the context of a growing archival movement in Ukraine, the artist reflects on the lack of an “archival impulse” — or the perceived impossibility of preservation itself.
Installation Luhanshchyna, My Song
Anna Ivchenko
A dual-channel video installation exploring the memories and stories of Luhansk residents who were forced to flee their city following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014.
Video Essay At Night, a Garden Appears Unwatched
Vitalii Yankovyi
A video essay dedicated to the memory of landscapes, forced displacement, and the unsettling resemblance between the places one flees from and those where one ends up. Through the image of a city lake — as a waypoint, a memory, a dream — the author explores bodily memory, the loss of home, nostalgia without return, and inner disorientation that lingers years after the war began.
Video Diary-Epic What Will You Do If the War Continues?
Vladyslav Plisetskyi
A three-part video diary-epic about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This film cycle focuses on individuals from Ukraine’s club and art scenes — often marginalized within public discourse, yet vital contributors to the war effort. The work stands as a “document of the era,” preserving a record of their roles in shaping contemporary history.
Installation The Room of the Museum of Forgetting
Alexey Shmurak, Dasha Podoltseva
Memory, recollection, and reminders are central concepts in both social communication and personal experience. In this installation, Oleksii and Dasha turn to their inverse — forgetting. Presented as part of a fictional thematic museum or archive, the work constructs a room within the imaginary Museum of Forgetting, specifically dedicated to the act of forgetting dreams.
Artist Talks
Join the participating artists of the Laboratory for in-depth conversations about their works, their approaches to documentary materials, and the themes and formats of their projects. The artists will share insights into their creative processes and answer audience questions.
June 8: Sofiia Korotkevych, Oleksandra Pletenetska, Vartan Markaryan
June 10: Anna Ivchenko, Karina Synytsia, Volodymyr Prylutskyi, Alexey Shmurak, Dasha Podoltseva
Moderated by Olha Balashova — PhD in Art History, curator, lecturer, and mentor of LAB: DOCU/SYNTHESIS x Ukraine War Archive.
Ukraïnka Gallery
8 Ihorivska ⅛ St.
June 8, 17:30–18:30 (possibly until 19:00)
June 10, 18:30–19:30 (possibly until 20:00)
Free admission
Special Event & Discussion (Im)movable Cultural Heritage
A screening and discussion of Zhanna Kadyrova’s work IDP within a thematic conversation focused on cultural heritage, specifically the challenge of evacuating artworks from endangered territories.
According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, there are 6 million movable cultural heritage items in frontline areas.
What is the state’s position on evacuation efforts? What priority is given to preserving cultural heritage during a full-scale war? Are local communities and their voices taken into account? Can self-organization and individual initiatives succeed in such cases?
Speakers: Zhanna Kadyrova, Leonid Marushchak, TBA.
Moderator: Oleksandra Nabieva.
Zhovten Cinema, Classic Hall
26 Kostyantynivska St.
