Interview with Oksana Radkevych

Oksana Radkevych, an artist, mother and displaced person, left Ukraine and came to Austria in 2022, shortly after the beginning of the full-scale war. “The beginning of the war took away the basic need of every person and family, the feeling of security.” The strong desire or, as Oksana puts it, the instinct to protect her children led her to leave her familiar surroundings. “At the time, it seemed safer to go to a country you didn’t know at all than to stay in Ukraine,” she recalls.

Initially, the focus was on acting quickly as there was neither space nor time for analysis and reflection. “It seems to me that the instinct to ‘save the children’ was so strong that I did not think twice, I just moved further away from the danger. I was in an emotional state that did not allow me to think about myself. I did not feel tired, I did not feel sadness and longing for my family, I can say that I did not feel anything at that time.”
However, after overcoming the first challenges following their arrival in Austria, the situation changed. “After a few months, the stress began to subside, and only then did the realization that I had lost my home and my previous way of life bring me to a state of frustration. For the sake of my children, I had to become strong.”

Fortunately, in that difficult moment, she met people who helped her start a new life in Innsbruck. Oksana has fond memories of Marina Biewald and the team at Office Ukraine Innsbruck. Her two children quickly felt at home in their new surroundings thanks to their new friends. “For my children, Austria will always be the country of their friends. As soon as we arrived, my son immediately went to school. He was offered additional German lessons, which helped him to adapt more quickly. He was greeted there with more than friendliness, he never felt out of place or depressed, but on the contrary, he made many new friends with whom he is still in touch.” Her daughter started kindergarten a few months later. “She had a harder time adjusting to the new language, but later everything got better and she also made a friend.”

Some encounters have turned into friendships, Oksana recalls: “Since my children are very active, we got to know many neighbors in our neighborhood and spent almost all of our holidays together. The neighbors created a unique sense of security and home by including us in their traditions and hobbies.”

Was it still possible to think about artistic work in this situation? “At the beginning of my life in Austria, there was no artistic practice at all,” Oksana explains. “The loneliness manifested itself in the feeling that the world was empty and there was no need to live in it anymore. The only thing resounding in my head was the Book of Psalms. When Office Ukraine Innsbruck introduced me to the artist Nora Schöpfer, who helped me with art materials, I felt the need to fill the emptiness with Psalms. Inside, I knew that as a mother I had to create a meaningful space here in Austria, because I had no idea how long we would be here and what the future would bring. That’s how the Psalms project was born.” The works from this series were presented at Galerie am Claudiaplatz in August 2022.

In order to be able to devote herself to art, the mother of two first had to solve financial problems: renting a new apartment, paying for her older son’s dance lessons, and dealing with insufficient financial support for displaced people from the government. “All this took away my peace of mind, because for a few months, I actually lived on donations from caring people, for whose support I am very grateful.” Applying for a grant for Ukrainian artists from the Austrian Ministry of Culture was a long wait, but the result was positive. With the grant and family allowance from the Austrian government, Oksana was able to focus on her creativity, and it was during this time that the second part of the Psalms project – Blooming – was born.