The open call for participation in LAB: DOCU/SYNTHESIS x Ukraine War Archive lasted for two months, and for 5 days, the selected artists were taking part in an educational module dedicated to the Labʼs theme of cultural heritage and memory. Meet the winning projects and their authors.

Film Archive of Silence

Vartan Markaryan, Vadym Makhitka

A 360-degree virtual reality film. The documentary focuses on the topic of memory and preservation of cultural heritage in museums, using the example of the Poltava Museum of Local Lore designed by Vasyl Krychevskyi in the style of Ukrainian Art Nouveau. 

Film 37 Reitarska Street

Oleksandra Pletenetska, Anna Mikheyenko

A documentary film that shows the process of destruction of an architectural monument — a house at 37 Reitarska Street in Kyiv — and the attempts of the city's community to oppose a developer undertaking it.

Installation Sleep paralysis

Sofiya Korotkevych

Sleep may seem like one of the few ways of recovery available to everyone, but in wartime, when the night increases stress and fears, it turns into torment. This installation is about the daily effects of war, which, although people are used to it, still resembles a nightmare impossible to escape.

Project Sensitive Content

Victoriya Lykholiot

An interdisciplinary project based on knitting techniques. During the war, thousands of photos, reports, and videos of horrific content flooded the news feed. This project is an attempt to talk about the war without showing it—through the practice of knitting, which, in contrast to violence, relaxes the body and mind.

A project about stone embroideries of Nova Kakhovka

Victoriya Rosenzweig

An interdisciplinary project about stone vyshyvankas, ornamental panels created by Hryhoriy Dovzhenko in the 1950s during the construction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, which decorated about 180 buildings in Nova Kakhovka.

Installation Archive in War

Volodymyr Prylutskyi, Oleksandr Darman

An audiovisual installation based on the authors' experiences of being in the archives of the Film Processing Workshop, which emphasises the importance of preserving film heritage. The work will explore the topic of collective memory and reflect the bizarre interconnectedness that accurately conveys the life of this archive during the war.

Project Absence

by Karina Sinitsa

The Absence Project raises questions about memory, time, and ways of preserving collective experience. In the context of the active flourishing of archiving in Ukraine, the author wants to talk about the absence of an ‘archival impulse’, or a certain impossibility of preservation.

Documentary film series Luhanshchina, My Song

Anna Ivchenko

A series of short experimental documentaries based on interviews with people originally from Luhansk who were forced to leave the city due to the Russian invasion in 2014.

Project At Night I Dream of an Unattended Garden

Vitalii Yankovyi

An interdisciplinary project about the loss of 2 types of individual landscape or the loss of entire ecosystems amid the war in Ukraine. Restoration of personal landscapes that demonstrate the fragility and complexity of forced migration.

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. The film series is dedicated to people from the club and artistic spheres. These heroes are often marginalised in the social context, but their contribution to the victory does not become less important. This is a "document of the era" that will leave evidence of their activity in modern history. 

We warmly congratulate the winners! From now on, the creation of artworks begins. The artists will work on their ideas together with the curator and mentors of the Lab. And very soon, weʼll start to tell you more about future projects. Stay tuned.

This project is implemented by the Docudays NGO as part of the USAID/ENGAGE activity, which is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Pact in Ukraine. The contents of this project are the sole responsibility of Pact and its partners and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.