In April 2022, a Rock Festival took place in the walls of the YermilovCentre, the first major cultural event in Kharkiv after the full-scale invasion. This experience is difficult to convey to those who weren’t there, or those who watched it from the outside, or those who were merely passing through the city. It can only be fully perceived by the Kharkiv community that endured shelling, eerie silence, and long days of waiting together. These events allowed the community to acknowledge and feel a sense of togetherness, which meant continuing to live and care for one another. War is a suspension of life; however, continuing to live and sustain life is one of the primary forms of resistance against the machine of terror.

In creating the exhibition, we drew from the topology and history of the YermilovCentre, which never ceased to operate as an art institution. It served as a de facto bomb shelter at the beginning of the full-scale invasion and contributed to bringing life back to normal while continuing to resist fear. The entire exhibition is built around the ambivalence of the concept of safety, which has been disrupted by the war but continues to be constantly reinterpreted and reassembled. In our exhibition, we understand safety not only as a feeling but, first and foremost, as an infrastructure of care and communication, a space maintained by vulnerable bodies through the efforts of individuals, communities, and institutions. Safety is a fragile entity, made possible through collective work in solidarity that allows to maintain and reproduce it. Many artists who participate in this exhibition have been affected by war, repression, and other forms of oppression. Therefore, their narratives of safety are not abstract speculations but rather an invitation to share their experiences and practices of creating safety in situations of total insecurity and vulnerability.

The exhibition is designed as an open system, inviting visitors to explore various navigational routes through a system of force fields — thematic blocks that give a comprehensive view on safety. The massive concrete walls of the YermilovCentre's constructivist building inherently convey a sense of protection. In our exposition, we intended to both highlight the safety these walls provide and counterbalance their massiveness and monumentality with a floating exposition. Video works shift positions at certain moments, altering the perception of the dialogues between the works in the space.

The exhibition at the YermilovCentre is the pivotal node of the Sense of Safety project, a complex international network of gestures, institutions, and events under the umbrella of the Bridges of Solidarity. This initiative connects Kharkiv to the world through an online platform, expanding Kharkiv's reach globally and bringing other geographies into Kharkiv.

For all participants, the international art project Sense of Safety represents both an essential internal need and a political gesture of solidarity, sharing, collective support, and care. Our project brought together those who were inside and those who were outside, those who lived through the events, and those who watched from afar. However, what unites us all is the city of Kharkiv itself—a city of science, technology, and art, where, without exaggeration, many innovations were brought to life. Kharkiv has always been a center of scientific and cultural life, connecting Ukraine to the rest of the world.

Artists

Olena Afanasieva & Max Afanasyev

Francis Alÿs

Andreas Angelidakis

Babi Badalov

Sergey Bratkov

Danilo Correale

Uli Golub

Thomas Hirschhorn

Nadira Husain

Taras Kamennoy

Alina Kleytman

Vitalii Kokhan

Dmytro Kolomoitsev

Yulia Kostereva & Yuriy Kruchak

Vladyslav Krasnoshchok

Karen Lancel & Hermen Maat

Lauren Lee McCarthy

Katya Lesiv

Iryna Loskot

Kateryna Lysovenko

Pavlo Makov

Boris Mikhailov

Rhona Mühlebach

Ahmet Öğüt

Mark Požlep

Karina Synytsia

Stas Volyazlovsky

Kateryna Yermolayeva

Anna Zvyagintseva

*foundationСlass

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The programme is part of the annual antiwarcoalition.art theme Sense of Safety || Lets Dream We Are Equal.