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Events

Future Fragments – Visions from the Present

event

Misprocessed Self-Portrait, 120-mm-Film, 2024 © Yevheniia Kriuk

Future Fragments – Visions from the Present
Opening: July 1, 2025 at 5 pm
Venue: Window Gallery of ERSTE Foundation, Am Belvedere 1, 1100 Vienna
Exhibition: July 1 to 31, 2025

How are you feeling given the current global political situation?

Uncertainty and a latent sense of dread pervade large parts of Europe. This is mainly due to Russia’s ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine. For many people, the future seems more unpredictable than ever due to technological developments and geopolitical tensions. Nevertheless, numerous civil society initiatives around the world continue to uphold and promote democratic values, climate protection and social justice.

Is hope even possible? And how do people who have faced existential insecurity and threats firsthand feel – people who have fled the war in Ukraine, for instance?

Future Fragments – Visions from the Present shows you what remains of the future when the past and present are ravaged by war and its consequences. The exhibition brings together works by Ukrainian artists who live both in Ukraine and in exile.

Based on their personal experiences of an exceptional existential situation and the permanent ambivalences of a fragmented present, the artists explore possible future scenarios – between hope and disillusion, technology and trauma, ecology and reconstruction.

Their works transform our window gallery into a publicly accessible window on the thoughts of a generation that has lost all the certainties of a previously peaceful coexistence. Dystopias are juxtaposed with utopian designs, personal experiences inform social issues. Future Fragments gives these voices space – and opens up new perspectives on what the future can mean.

ERSTE Foundation condemns the war of aggression against Ukraine and the violence against its people.

For the past three years, we have been focussing our attention on the people in Ukraine and those who have fled to us from the war. We are supporting Ukrainian cultural workers, helping representatives of Ukrainian social organisations continue their education in Vienna, promoting journalism training and supporting the building and strengthening of local democratic structures. We are doing everything we can to improve living conditions in their wartorn country.

Participating artists:
Yehor Antsyhin, Daria Chernyshova, EtchingRoom1, Yana Kononova, Yevheniia Kriuk, Kateryna Lysovenko, Anna Manankina, Vera Mantiuk, Oksana Pyzh, Ola Yeriemieieva

The exhibition is a cooperation between ERSTE Foundation and Office Ukraine.
Office Ukraine was co-founded by tranzit.at in cooperation with BMWKMS / Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport (formerly BMKOES).

What is Ukrainian painting now? Panel Discussion

event

Depot, Breite Gasse 3, 1070 Vienna 
Wednesday, June 25, 2025, 7 pm

What is Ukrainian painting now? 

Painting, historically grounded in its socio-political context, has been a medium through which times of crisis, ideological shifts, and cultural transitions are both recorded and reinterpreted. In Ukraine, from the aesthetics of socialist realism to contemporary works, painters have persistently mirrored both the shifting environment and the existential conditions of human experience.

This conversation will focus on the inheritance of visual memory – how it evolves under conditions of crisis. By foregrounding the personal and political entanglements of artistic work before and after the onset of full-scale war, the panel will open questions on how Ukrainian painting continues to be an archive of a collective memory, and What is Ukrainian painting now?

Participants:
Yehor Antsyhin, artist, Vienna
Polina Baitsym, art historian, curator, Vienna
Danylo Kovach, artist, Vienna
Olena Shtepura, artist, scenographer, Vienna

Moderation:
Ania Zorh, artist, researcher, founder of the prolet.AIR artist union, Vienna.

The panel discussion will be held in English.

Event hosted by Office Ukraine in cooperation with Depot.

Office Ukraine was co-founded by tranzit.at in cooperation with BMWKMS / Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport (formerly BMKOES).

Performative Lecture: DAS GEN

event

By Oleksandr Halishchuk

Schaumbad – Freies Atelierhaus Graz, Puchstraße 41, 8020 Graz
14.06.2025, 16:00

I give even more visibility and voice to a community that has greatly contributed to the development of feminism, queer theory and contemporary art; that has been underrepresented for years – cis hetero men.

As a queer-trans refugee, I feel more than qualified to start the discussion about men just like men about trans and queers for decades now. And I encourage everyone, who has been experiencing men, to share their experience with the group during the discussion.

As part of STERRRN FEST 2025

© Oleksandr Halishchuk

Performance: Someone Like Me

event

© Oleksandr Osipov

By Nina Khyzhna

TaO! Theater am Ortweinplatz, Ortweinplatz 1, 8010 Graz
13.06.2025, 19:30

“Someone Like Me” is a performative-physical solo performance by Nina Khyzhna about the journey of a disembodied being through the bodies of others. It learns from the experiences of those who face fear day after day and find ways to resist it. Through the state of its muscles, its movements, habits, and feelings, the being absorbs the experiences of people forced to live in the danger of war. In these people’s physical states and movements, it finds traces of stress, pain, sadness, newly learned survival and combat strategies—but also joy, humor, thirst, and a strange sense of paradox.

The performance is based on a series of interviews with Ukrainians of various professions, genders, and ages—from 6 to 90 years old. Their bodies and experiences vary greatly, yet they can be shared, heard, and attempted to be understood. “Because we all faced a threat and became a collective body, transforming and learning to adapt to a strange reality.”

The central means of expression of the performance is the language of the body – movement and dance, collected from the gestures, associations and everyday actions of the people with whom the project team spoke.

As part of Dramatiker:innenfestival 2025

Supported by “Museum of Contemporary Art” Ukrainian Emergency Art Fund (UEAF) in cooperation with UNESCO, UNESCO Emergency Heritage Fund and UNESCO-Aschberg Artists and Cultural Professionals Initiative

A production by Nafta Theatre

Exhibition: This Is My City. Is This My City?

event

Artists and curators:
Nastia Khlestova, Anton Tkachenko & ANTUUM

< rotor >, Volksgartenstraße 6a, Graz
14.06. – 02.08.2025

The place you call yours – does it belong to you, or do you belong to it?

In 2024, the curatorial collective ACE conducted research in Celje, made possible by the Residency Programme of the Styrian State Government and the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs. Based on this, an exhibition was put together for the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Celje, which is now followed by its second version at < rotor >.

Our communication with the city constantly recreates it, everyone who lives in it builds their own version of the city, and in the end, any city is a collective fantasy, a shared responsibility, and the result of mutual trust. This exhibition shows the artistic engagement with the diverse communities and generations in Celje and Graz, their visions and experiences. It seeks to highlight the ways people interact with their urban surroundings, showcasing the personal and collective contributions that shape a city’s identity.

© Anton Tkachenko

Beyond Greener Grass: CEC ArtsLink Assembly 2025

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A gathering of key artists and cultural leaders in Ukraine and those displaced abroad together with key international partner organizations, foundations and supporters in Ukraine’s independent cultural space from May 23-24, 2025 at Jam Factory Art Center Lviv

The Assembly of Ukrainian cultural leaders continues CEC ArtsLink’s sustained and deep engagement with the cultural community of Ukraine over many years. ArtsLink Assembly: Beyond Greener Grass shared critical ideas, built networks of support, developed implementation plans and initiated a new cultural ecology for Ukraine and its diaspora.

The agenda for ArtsLink Assembly: Beyond Greener Grass was shaped in a curated by CEC ArtsLink series of workshops  for artists and cultural leaders in Lviv, Kyiv, Berlin and Warsaw in March-June 2024. These moderated dialogues focused on strategies for Ukraine’s cultural reconstruction, created platforms for ongoing discussion, shared knowledge, and added a wider range of artists’ perspectives to the strategic planning.

At the Assembly, key artists and cultural leaders presented the outcomes of the workshops – reflections, new issues and ideas, as well as constructive proposals for future action.

On May 24, Georg Schöllhammer (curator, Office Ukraine, director of tranzit.at) took part in the panel discussion Strategies for Cooperation between Ukraine, New Diaspora and Beyond:
Other participants:
Liza German, curator, co-founder of The Naked Room gallery (Kyiv)
Kateryna Radchenko, curator, Director of Odesa Photo Days Festival
Kateryna Rietz-Rakul, Head of Ukrainian Institute in Germany, based in Berlin
Anton Ovchinnikov (online), choreographer, performer, composer, lecturer, poet, and organizer
Olha Honchar, cultural scholar, director of the Territory of Terror Memorial Museum of Totalitarian Regimes in Lviv, Lviv workshop participant
Anna Kopylova, independent cultural manager and curator, former director of Voloshyn Gallery
Daria Prydybailo, curator, Berlin workshop participant
Kateryna Alymova (online), cultural and music manager, curator, producer, co-founder of Kyiv Contemporary Music Days

Moderation:
Volodymyr Sheiko (Ukrainian Institute) and Simon Dove (CEC ArtsLink)

As part of the Assembly, Office Ukraine Vienna was represented with an information stand about the work of Office Ukraine.

People who were not present on site were able to follow the event via livestream. Video documentation of the talks and discussions can be found here.

Partner / Venue in Lviv, Ukraine

ArtsLink Assembly: Beyond Greener Grass is co-curated with Hnat Zabrodskyy and organized by CEC ArtsLink in partnership with Jam Factory Art Center and in partnership with Ukrainian Institute.

Photos © Sviatoslav Sidletskyi, Roksoliana Trush

Hans Haacke – Retrospective: Guided Exhibition Tour and Get Together in cooperation with Belvedere 21

June 3, 2025, 4:00 pm event

Hans Haacke, Germania, German Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 1993 Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York © Hans Haacke / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Bildrecht, Vienna 2025

In the course of a Get Together on June 3, we cordially invite you in cooperation with Belvedere 21 to a guided tour in English through the exhibition Hans Haacke – Retrospective. As the exhibition will close on June 9, this is one of the last opportunities to view this major solo show by one of the most internationally influential contemporary artists. 

Hans Haacke (b. 1936) is a legend of political conceptual art—and his work remains strikingly relevant in today’s world. As a founding figure of artistic institutional critique, Haacke redefined the relationship between art and society and profoundly influenced generations of artists.

Beginning in the 1960s, Haacke first explored biological, physical, and ecological before shifting his focus to socio-political structures. His work unflinchingly addresses abuses of power, mechanisms of exclusion and inequality, historico-political disruptions; the entanglements of public institutions, politics, and economics, while also confronting anti-democratic tendencies.

This exhibition is an invitation to rediscover Haacke’s art and its relevance to the pressing questions of our time: How do capital, ideology, and history shape our lives? What images, rhetoric, and manipulative tactics does nationalist populism employ? How about the complicity of the art world, but also the critical potential of art? With a comprehensive selection from all periods, from 1959 to the present, the retrospective highlights the versatility of Haacke’s oeuvre. In addition to numerous iconic works, it includes in particular those projects that Haacke developed specifically for the Austrian context.



The exhibition is being held in cooperation with Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt.
Curated by Luisa Ziaja.
Assistant Curator: Katarina Lozo and Theresa Dann-Freyenschlag

Many thanks to Belvedere 21 for the cooperation. 

Office Ukraine Book Presentation & Discussion: ONGOING SOLIDARITY!?

event

Kärnten Museum, Museumgasse 2, 9021 Klagenfurt
19.05. 2025, 19:00

Panel discussion:
Lukas Baumann (Migration and solidarity researcher), Olia
Fedorova (Artist), Alexandra Schwell (Cultural anthropologist),
Oleksandr Sydorenko (Volunteer first responder)

Moderation:
Matthias Wieser (Media and communications researcher)

Musical accompaniment:
Alma Portič and Anna Bednarchuk

Just a few days after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the initiative Office Ukraine – Shelter for Ukrainian Artists was founded, a platform consisting of tranzit.at (Vienna), Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen (Innsbruck), <rotor> (Graz), and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts and Culture, the Media and Sports (BMWKMS).
As soon as the offices began operating, they could rely on overwhelming support from civil society and agents of the art scene. The Office Ukraine’s work for and with the many Ukrainian artists and cultural workers who found shelter in Austria was and still is only possible through this collective support.

In a world where crises quickly shift public attention, the question arises about endurance of solidarity. How do emotional categories like solidarity lose their strength over time? What mechanisms influence our ability or inability to support urgent causes over the long term? The large-scale war against Ukraine has now lasted more than three years; Whether we can continue to build on solidarity will be decisive both for the fate of Ukraine and for the displaced Ukrainians.Matthias Wieser, media and cultural scientist, will discuss the dynamics of attention economies and the shifting of solidarity from one cause to another with Lukas Baumann, migration and solidarity researcher, Olia Fedorova, artist and staff member of Office Ukraine Graz, Alexandra Schwell, cultural anthropologist, and Oleksandr Sydorenko, volunteer first responder.

The publication Office Ukraine: Two Years of Support for Ukrainian Artists highlights the extensive work of the platform, which was founded in 2022 in response to Russian war aggression, and presents the numerous collaborations with artists and institutions throughout Austria.

© Olia Fedorova

Exhibition: Bau(m\ch)schmerz

event

By Ola Yeriemieieva
ZIEGEL
Opening as part of the Galerientage: Saturday, 17.05.2025 | 18:00
Exhibition duration: 18.05. – 25.05.2025, Wed-Sat: 16-19:00

The tombstone-trees depicted in the paintings first appeared in the nineteenth century in Jewish and Christian cemeteries. These monuments are usually associated with an interrupted life and symbolise untimely loss. They often represent the termination of a family line. Baumschmerz (the pain of the tree) is the pain of nature, representing the loss and finality of death. Bauchschmerz (stomach pain) is a metaphor for universal pain that unites human and natural experience, the pain of the tree and the pain of the human. In this room, there is a whole forest of cut-down trees that have become monuments of lost memory and broken stories.

Ola Yeriemieieva is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores themes of corporeality, death, loss, and memory. She investigates the fear of loss and the attempt to preserve what has not yet been lost. And if it has been lost, to reinterpret and materialize that loss. She is interested in examining these themes through subjective visions and personal narratives that intertwine with broader historical and political contexts, as memory and history are inseparable. Born in 1997 in Kyiv, Ukraine, she has a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design in 2018. She also studied contemporary art at the Kyiv Academy of Media Arts. Selected Exhibitions: – Looking into the Gaps, Voloshyn Gallery, Kyiv (2024) – Women Artists in War, Labirynt Gallery, Lublin (2024) – Defloration, Mala Gallery, Kyiv (2024) – Kunst und Leben in Zeiten des Krieges, Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart (2023)

© Ola Yeriemieieva

Exhibition: What will you remember of these times?

event

By Jura Golik
raum.Ateliergemeinschaft zur Forschung am fotografischen Bild und visuellen Medien
Opening: Saturday, 10.05.2025 | 18:30
Exhibition duration: 11.05. - 22.05.2025, Wed-Sun: 16-19:00

The exhibition What will you remember of these times? by Ukrainian artist Jura Golik explores the experience of uprooting, collective memory and the fragile construction of reality in the face of war and exile. By focussing on the object-based dimension of photography, Jura Golik creates a space that explores the emotional experiences of Ukrainian immigrants in Europe and simultaneously addresses the loss of a sense of time and reality that comes with living abroad.

Jura Golik (*2003) is an artist and curator from Kharkiv, Ukraine. 2024 he has finished his study in History and Theory of Arts at Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts and worked as an art-manager at Municipal Gallery in Kharkiv and with friends he launched an independent art project PATIO. In September 2022 he moved to Lviv, currently he is based in Graz, Austria.

We would also like to invite you on Saturday, 17 May at 20:00 during Galerientage to a performance and DJ set by musician, singer-songwriter, and producer Nina Eba.

© Jura Golik

Exhibition: April Bloom

event

By Anton Tkachenko
Kunsthaus Graz
Foyer Exhibition
07.05. - 15.06.2025

“We humans are pinning our hopes on the fact that a certain number of flowers, shrubs and trees can protect a multi-ton highway from the collapse of an even heavier mountain. (…) The plants draw their strength from the soil soaked in our blood and sweat,” writes Anton Tkachenko about the work he created in just a few weeks for the foyer of the Kunsthaus.

Scraps of cheap materials, soft, foldable, and thus fundamentally mobile, become interwoven, growing pictorial narratives in an echo of the avant-garde and the revolutionary gesture of montage. Ukrainian artist Anton Tkachenko – in Graz since 2023 – creates landscapes for the foyer in which mountains, bridges, rows of houses, but also plants, figures, and blooming flowers are intertwined: Hope, vision, or just more shadows of Sisyphean attempts at resistance?

With a musical intervention by Anna Illiushyna.

Kuratiert von Katrin Bucher-Trantow.

 

Digital Workshop with Mobility Arts & Culture Austria on May 6, 2025 from 3–5.30 pm

May 6, 2025, 3:00 pm – 5:30 pm event

May 6, 2025, 3pm - 5.30pm

In this workshop for Ukrainian artists, philosopher and cultural scholar Sabine Kock—advisor to Mobility Arts & Culture Austria—will give an overview of artist‑specific questions on residence options, self‑employment, supplementary income and insurance.

Marie‑Theres Bauer and Klara Koštal (Austrian Commission for UNESCO) will present the new information website Mobility Arts & Culture Austria.

Event held in cooperation with Office Ukraine Vienna and Mobility Arts & Culture Austria.

Please register by Monday, May 5, 12.00 p.m. using the Google form

The ZOOM link will be sent to all registered participants.

Language of the workshop is English.

Event in cooperation with Office Ukraine Vienna and the Austrian Commission for UNESCO.

Kunsthalle Wien Get Together on April 25

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Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing 1960–1991
Guided tour of the exhibition and Get Together
at Kunsthalle Wien, MuseumsQuartier Wien
April 25, 2025 at 4 pm

Image: Dara Birnbaum, Pop-Pop Video: Kojak/Wang, 1980, © Courtesy Dara Birnbaum und / and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York

For the next Office Ukraine Get Together in April, we cordially invite you to join the guided tour of the exhibition Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing 1960–1991 at Kunsthalle Wien on Friday, April 25 at 4 pm.

The tour will be held in English and afterwards there will be time for informal discussions.

Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing 1960–1991 examines the pioneering role of women in digital art. Comprising more than one hundred works by fifty artists, the exhibition includes painting, sculpture, installation, film, performance and many computer-generated drawings and texts. Focusing on women who were among the first to use the computer – mainframe and minicomputers – as a tool for art making. They are accompanied by other artists who made the computer their subject or worked in a computational way with algorithmic or mathematically based systems. 

Artists: Rebecca Allen, Elena Asins, Colette Stuebe Bangert & Charles Jeffries Bangert, Gretchen Bender, Gudrun Bielz & Ruth Schnell, Dara Birnbaum, Inge Borchardt, Barbara Buckner, Doris Chase, Analívia Cordeiro, Betty Danon, Hanne Darboven, Bia Davou, Agnes Denes, VALIE EXPORT, Anna Bella Geiger, Isa Genzken, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Lily Greenham, Samia Halaby, Barbara Hammer, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Grace C. Hertlein, Channa Horwitz, Irma Hünerfauth, Charlotte Johannesson, Alison Knowles, Beryl Korot, Ruth Leavitt, Liliane Lijn, Vera Molnár, Monique Nahas & Hervé Huitric, Katherine Nash, Sonya Rapoport, Deborah Remington, Sylvia Roubaud, Miriam Schapiro, Lillian Schwartz, Sonia Sheridan, Nina Sobell, Barbara T. Smith, Tamiko Thiel, Rosemarie Trockel, Joan Truckenbrod, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Ulla Wiggen 

The exhibition Radical Software: Women, Art and Computing 1960–1991 is curated by Michelle Cotton and organized by Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, and Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean.

The exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien is made possible through the generous support of Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne.

—

Registration is not obligatory, but in order to be able to estimate how many people we can expect, a short message would be helpful if you are interested: office@artistshelp-ukraine.at

Exhibition: Mostly Mined Out

event

7 March - 24 May, 2025

Duration: 7 March – 24 May, 2025
Location: < rotor >, Volksgartenstraße 6a, Graz

Participating artists:
Yehor Antsyhin • Lia Dostlieva & Andrii Dostliev
Diana Fedoriaka • Vira Hanzha • Lucy Ivanova
Pavlo Kerestey • Alina Kleytman • Anastasiia Leliuk
Kateryna Lysovenko • Oleh Perkowsky
Stanislava Pinchuk • Vova Vorotniov

Curated by:Nastia Khlestova & Maksym Khodak

The industrialised economy is largely based on the extraction of valuable minerals, ores and fossil fuels. These resources have always been closely linked to the country in which they are found and advancing capitalism carts them around the globe. Right up to the present day, people and their ideas become the main driving forces of the economy and, in a sense, a natural resource.

The exhibition explores the lives and experiences of Ukrainians, which have been changed by war-induced migration and reveals a paradox in connection with movement. While the artists speak of a change of location, it is at the same time about being frozen in one’s own displacement.

In the end, there is only movement in which we are too slow for the world around us. Snails being crushed under the rubble.

© Max Wegscheidler

ZOOM workshop with the Diakonie Flüchtlingsdienst

event

April 1, 2025, 2pm - 4pm

The Diakonie Flüchtlingsdienst in cooperation with Office Ukraine Vienna invites you to a free ZOOM workshop. With a focus on legal issues specifically for people from Ukraine, questions about basic care, additional income opportunities, Blue Card / asylum status, Red-White-Red Card, as well as the possibility of changing from one status to another, including the associated advantages and disadvantages, will be explained.

Please register by Monday, March 31, at 12:00 using the Google form:

https://forms.gle/ZQWtY1LJr6wFigg67 

The ZOOM link will then be sent to the registered persons.

The workshop will be held  in Ukrainian language.

Exhibition: Stolen Past, Threatened Future

event

The exhibition Stolen Past, Threatened Future, curated by Matilda Cherednichenko, is a statement of solidarity with Ukrainian artists and cultural workers. Marking three years since the beginning of the full-scale invasion and eleven years since the violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty by Russia, the situation in the country is extremely tense.

As part of the exhibition, initiated by Office Ukraine Vienna and solidarity matters / Veronika Dirnhofer (Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), two Open Calls were held: Following the curator’s selection, 23 Ukrainian artists living in both Ukraine and Austria as well as Germany were invited from over 200 applications.

Stolen Past, Threatened Future explores personal and collective dimensions of war, the struggle and forced emigration, capturing both realities of living under constant threat and relocation to a new country. The title refers to a feeling which is known to every Ukrainian: that one’s previous life has been stolen  – out of the sudden, in the middle of the night.

The exhibition revolves around displacement, instability, memory, and temporality. How the “temporary” state of exile becomes reality. Art has become not only a form of resistance, but also a place of refuge and a tool for survival. 

Through diverse artistic media, including painting, sculpture, photography and video works the show emphasizes a shared resilience and identity, transcending physical borders. Instead of focusing on differences, the exhibition highlights unity, presenting Ukrainian artists as one voice, no matter where they are. 

This exhibition is a call for empathy and a collective effort, reminding viewers of the critical need to act now, otherwise our common future is threatened.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Vasylyna Buryanyk, Mark Chehodaiev, Dilkone (Vitalii Hrekh), Jura Golik, Lucy Ivanova, Maksym Khodak, Dmytro Khodorchuk, Ruslana Kliuchko, Sofiia Korotkevych, Uliana Kukharuk, Mariia Lisovska, Polina Makarova, Yaroslava Melnychenko, Anzhelika Palyvoda, Yevheniia Pavlova, Anatolii Pohorilyi, Maria Pylypenko, Viktoriia Rozentsveih, Mykola Shandra, Tanya Shtykalo, Alisa Sizykh, Maria Vasylenko, Ola Yereimieieva

OFFICE UKRAINE

Opening
Tuesday, 11 March, 2025
at 6 pm

Opening hours
12–19 March, 2025
from 12 pm–6 pm

Finissage
Wednesday, 19 March, 2025
from 6 pm– 9.30 pm

Visitor Info_Stolen Past, Threatened Future

Venue
Exhibit Eschenbachgasse
Eschenbachgasse 11
1010 Vienna

Contact
office(at)artistshelp-ukraine.at

Free admission
We would like to thank Veronika Dirnhofer / solidarity matters, the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, the BMKOES, tranzit.at, the ERSTE Foundation as well as the Ukraine Office Austria and the OeAD Cooperation Office Lviv for their support.

Photos: Valerie Maltseva

Festival: Waiting for…

event

Almost for the whole week, 3-7 December 2024, Theater im Bahnhof in Graz hosted the Ukrainian multidisciplinary festival “Waiting For…” dedicated to the exploration of the Waiting state through different artistic media. Today we want to tell you more about each of the main festival blocs.

1. Waiting Room
One of the Theater’s spaces, the Blue Room, turned into an interactive laboratory of three Ukrainian visual artists. Anton Tkachenko, Eva Fomitski, and Yurii Golik invited visitors to share their stories of anticipation and expectation and in this way contribute to the creation process. Filled with different art supplies, the Waiting Room became a creative playground: for the whole duration of the festival, artists collected stories, experimented with forms and materials, and gradually filled the room with art objects that summed up their exploration. This Lab for sure was the backbone of the festival, hosting artists and visitors until late night (and sometimes overnight too!).

2. Book Presentation
On the Friday evening of December 6th, the theatre stage hosted the panel discussion associated with the presentation of Office Ukraine’s publication “Two Years of Support for Ukrainian Artists”. Ten guests who have worked with or been accompanied by the Graz office over the last few years were on stage with Pia Hierzegger, talking about their work and themselves. A wide variety of questions on the subject of Waiting provided very personal insights into the lives and thoughts of the panelists. This event continued the series of Office Ukraine’s book presentations held all over Austria.

3. Performance Night
The multi-layered performance evening on Saturday, Dec 7th, vividly wrapped up the festival week. Five different pieces, from readings (Yulia Ilukha, Eva Hofer), monodrama (Lilia Kryvets), and performance (Oleksandr Halishchuk) to audiovisual artistic duo (ZhizhiNiNi, Nick Akorne, Svitlana Zhytnia) and solo singing under video projection (Nina Eba, Verena Schneider), led the audience through a full spectrum of versatile emotions. At the very end of the evening, the Waiting Room laboratory was presented in its final shape.

Besides that, the theatre’s cozy bar hosted a small art&crafts showcase by the Ukrainian art community of Graz. The festival was also visited by the Ukrainian interns from the Professional Hub program as a part of their study visit to Office Ukraine Graz.

Text by: Johanna Hierzegger, Maria Kardash

Witnessing Ukraine: Three Years Through the Full Scale War

event

Office Ukraine Film Screening in cooperation with Kriegsbilder at mumok cinema

To mark the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Office Ukraine. Support for Ukrainian Artists and Kriegsbilder present a special film screening program at mumok cinema on February 25, 2025 at 6 pm.

Featured filmmakers include Nadiia Parfan, Roman Khimei & Yarema Malashchuk, Mykola Ridnyi, Anna Potyomkina, and Anastasiia Diachenko & Artem Jarosh.

This screening is part of ongoing efforts to maintain international awareness about the situation in Ukraine while highlighting the importance of documentary filmmaking in preserving historical memory.

A discussion will follow the screening.

Free admission with registration online

Language: Films in English and Ukrainian with English subtitles

Organized by Office Ukraine. Support for Ukrainian Artists in cooperation with Kriegsbilder and supported by mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien.

Office Ukraine. Support for Ukrainian Artists, founded just a few days after the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion in 2022, operates through locations in Vienna (tranzit.at), Graz (< rotor >) and Innsbruck (Künstler:innenhaus Büchsenhausen). The initiative creates vital connections between Ukrainian artists and Austrian cultural institutions. Working across all artistic disciplines, it enables displaced artists to continue their creative practice and fosters sustainable cultural exchange between Ukraine and Austria.
Office Ukraine. Support for Ukrainian Artists is created in cooperation with the BMKOES (Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sports).

KRIEGSBILDER is a Vienna-based cultural initiative dedicated to presenting Ukrainian perspectives through various formats. The initiative specializes in curating film screenings and listening sessions that introduce Ukrainian political and cultural contexts.

Image: still from “Explosions Near the Museum”, 2023 © Yarema Malashchuk/Rōman Khimey

Workshop How to: Funding Application

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In collaboration with the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport (BMKOES), a workshop was held in November 2024 to provide valuable insights into funding opportunities for Ukrainian artists in Austria. During an interactive presentation, participants received a comprehensive overview of the funding programs offered by BMKOES, along with practical guidance on how to correctly complete funding applications.  

A heartfelt thank you to all participants and partners for the enriching exchange.  

The presentation and the full recording of the workshop are available here:

YouTube Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhg8cYs0uog   

Presentation (PDF) Workshop about funding from BMKÖS



A Fable for Tomorrow – Imran Channa & Kateryna Lysovenko

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Guided Exhibition Tour, Talk and Get Together at philomena+
Friday, December 20, 4-7 pm

Office Ukraine Get together in December 2024

The post-anthropocene landscape in the aftermath of the worst nuclear disaster forms the central focus of the collaborative exhibition project “A Fable for Tomorrow”.

Imran Channa (*in Shikarpur, Sindh, Pakistan, lives and works in Amsterdam), who was invited for an artist residency this fall by philomena+, often uses archive materials in his artistic work. Based on this, he employs game development software for the creation of immersive 3D landscapes that refer to a speculated future. He digitally navigates the viewer through the monstrous architecture of the accident site, a nuclear power plant after the meltdown.

Kateryna Lysovenko (* in Kyiv, Ukraine, lives and works in Vienna) refers in her painting to the Red Forest, the exclusion zone in Chernobyl after the nuclear disaster of 1986. Due to the high levels of radiation, the pine trees turned reddish-brown and died, and mutations in the genetic material of humans and animals occurred. After the evacuation of the people, more animals moved into the area. In the years that followed, the diversity of fauna and flora in the Red Forest increased significantly. Nature in this area not only seems to have survived, but also thrived.

In the course of the event, director Christine Bruckbauer from philomena+ will present the art space as well as the exhibition and Kateryna Lysovenko will talk about her work.

After the official program, there will be an opportunity for informal discussions over Hot Punch and Christmas bakery.

The exhibition “A Fable for Tomorrow” at philomena+ will be shown until December 28, 2024.

Time: Friday, December 20, 2024, 4 – 7 pm
Venue: philomena+, Heinestraße 40, 1020 Vienna

https://philomena.plus

Two Years of Support for Ukrainian Artists Office Ukraine Book Presentation in Linz

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Thursday, December 5 at 6 pm
Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Doktor-Ernst-Koref-Promenade 1, 4020 Linz

The publication »Office Ukraine. Two Years of Support for Ukrainian Artists« (Verlag für moderne Kunst) highlights the extensive work of the platform founded in 2022 in response to the Russian war of aggression and presents the numerous collaborations with artists and institutions throughout Austria. 

In the following panel discussion, Ukrainian artists will talk about their living and working situation in Austria and, together with members of Office Ukraine and supporters, discuss suitable support measures for displaced cultural workers.

Program

– Welcome address by Hemma Schmutz / director Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz
– Presentation of the publication by Andrei Siclodi and Susanne Jäger / Office Ukraine
– Panel discussion with Anastasiya Yarovenko / artist and curator, Anastasiia Vasylchenko Mamay / artist, Olia Fedorova, artist
and Office Ukraine team member, and Georg Schöllhammer / Office Ukraine
Moderation of the event: Mark Napadenski / Office Ukraine 

After the official part, drinks will be offered and there will be an opportunity for informal discussions. 

The publication was made possible through the generous support of the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport (BMKOES).

We would like to thank Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz for supporting the event.

Free admission

Book presentation in Innsbruck: “Office Ukraine. Two years of support for Ukrainian artists”

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LITERATURHAUS AM INN
Joseph-Hirn-Straße 5, 6020 Innsbruck

25. NOVEMBER 2024, 19:00

The publication Office Ukraine. Two Years of Support for Ukrainian Artists (Verlag für moderne Kunst, 2024) highlights the extensive work of the platform founded in 2022 in response to the Russian war of aggression and presents the numerous collaborations with artists and institutions throughout Austria.

Following the book presentation by Anastasiia Diachenko (Office Ukraine), Kseniya Kharchenko and Oleksandra Terentyeva will explore the contemporary publishing world in Ukraine, the activities of members of the Ukrainian literature scene in diaspora, and the importance of international collaborations.
Moderation: Veronika Riedl (Office Ukraine).

Andrei Siclodi (Office Ukraine) will guide through the evening.

The publication was made possible through the generous support of the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport (BMKOES).

The event is a cooperation between Office Ukraine and Literaturhaus am Inn.

INVITATION

Kseniya Kharchenko is a writer, translator, cultural manager, and a member of PEN Ukraine. She worked as the program manager for the Documenting Ukraine project at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM Vienna) and is currently pursuing studies at the University of Vienna.

Oleksandra Terentyeva is a political scientist at Innsbruck University and initiator of the community center and library Hnizdo.Innsbruck.

A Lost Glove, or the Meaning of Solidarity.

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Office Ukraine. Two Years of Support for Ukrainian Artists.
Book Presentation at Buch Wien 2024

In March 2022, the BMKÖS (Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport) founded the networking platform “Office Ukraine” in cooperation with civil society.

The diverse activities with Ukrainian artists and institutions throughout Austria are presented in the publication “Office Ukraine. Two Years of Support for Ukrainian Artists” published by Verlag für moderne Kunst / Vienna.

On the occasion of the book fair Buch Wien 2024, the publication will be presented.
In the panel discussion organized by the BMKÖS and Office Ukraine: “A lost glove, or the meaning of solidarity”, the publication of the networking platform Office Ukraine will be presented, which comprises the diverse activities of Ukrainian artists and institutions throughout Austria.
On the panel, writer Tanya Malyarchuk, children’s book author Oksana Maslova, musician Roman Trubchaninonv and Georg Schöllhammer from Office Ukraine, moderated by Simon Mraz, will discuss the work of Ukrainian artists in Austria.

Office Ukraine. Two Years of Support for Ukrainian Artists. Book

Panel discussion with Roman Trubchaninov, Oksana Maslova, Tanya Malyarchuk, Georg Schöllhammer.
Moderation: Simon Mraz
Date: November 24, 2024, 11 – 11.45 am
Venue: Donau Lounge, Messe Wien, Hall D
Address: Trabrennstrasse 7, 1020 Vienna

Studio Visit and Get Together with artist Andreas Fogarasi

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Thursday, November 14, 2024 at 5 pm

As part of this Get Together, Ukrainian artists and cultural professionals will have the opportunity to visit the studio of Andreas Fogarasi as part of a guided tour, view his works and talk to the artist about his understanding of art and his professional experiences.

In his installations, architectural interventions, sculptures, videos and photographs, artist Andreas Fogarasi  (*1977, Vienna) deals with the act of showing and of  representation. Formally inspired by Minimal Art and Conceptual Art, Fogarasi’s works are both documentary and autonomously sculptural. Fogarasi was awarded the Golden Lion for his exhibition in the Hungarian Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007 and received the Otto Mauer Prize in 2016.

Solo exhibitions a.o.: Kunsthalle Wien, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna, Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, Toronto, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Ludwig Forum, Aachen, MAK, Vienna

After the official part drinks will be provided. We will be happy to see you there!

Event in English language.

Studio Andreas Fogarasi
Address: Zur Spinnerin 43, 1100 Vienna

© Andreas Fogarasi

Presentation of the publication ‘Office Ukraine. Two Years of Support for Ukrainian Artists’

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Secession
September 25, 2024, at 6 pm

We are pleased to present the publication Office Ukraine. Two Years of Support for Ukrainian Artists (Verlag für moderne Kunst).  

The publication presents the diverse activities of Office Ukraine over two years throughout Austria and provides insights into our collaboration with artists and institutions. 

The book also includes interviews with Ukrainian artists and art workers who came to Austria fleeing the war, as well as essays by Ukrainian author Tanya Malyarchuk about personal experiences with those who stayed in Ukraine and linguist and migration expert Ruth Wodak on global migration policy.

Over the course of our work, we have organised–mostly in cooperation with art institutions and culture initiatives–about 270  events with around 580 invited Ukrainian artists and theorists, many of them making their way onto the pages of the book. Also, each part of the publication is illustrated with works by Ukrainian artists with whom we are in touch.

Our aim is to inform about our work and to raise awareness about the war in Ukraine and the situation of refugee artists in Austria. This publication was created with the intention of sharing our experiences and thus providing a starting point or even a guide for similar initiatives in the future.

Office Ukraine was founded in cooperation with the BMKOES (Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport), civil society, tranzit.at, < rotor > Center for Contemporary Art, Künstler:innenhaus Büchsenhausen, springerin and other initiatives. 

We invite you to the book presentation at Secession on 25 September at 6 pm. 

The event will be held in English, admission is free.

Program

Welcome address by Andrea Mayer / Secretary of State for Arts and Culture in the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport (BMKOES)

Presentation of the publication by Johanna Hierzegger, Georg Schöllhammer, and Andrei Siclodi / Office Ukraine

Discussion with Judith Kohlenberger / migration researcher, Vienna University of Economics and Business, and Georg Schöllhammer / Office Ukraine

Talk with Kateryna Lysovenko / artist, Veronika Dirnhofer / artist, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, and Susanne Jäger / Office Ukraine

After the official part, Ukrainian finger food will be offered and there will be an opportunity for informal discussions.

Kaleidoscope – Maybe Displaced but Still Connected

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Exhibition at PARALLEL VIENNA, September 12–15, 2024
Preview / Opening: September 11, 2024

Office Ukraine presents the exhibition Kaleidoscope – Maybe Displaced but Still Connected at Parallel Vienna, inviting Ukrainian artists currently in Ukraine and those living in other EU countries due to the war.

Office Ukraine’s contribution to Parallel Vienna revolves around the perspective of interconnection. Artists and cultural practitioners from Ukraine, who due to the Russian large-scale war of aggression and their subsequent flight to other countries are now scattered in various countries, are building their practice in different environments maintaining relations with each other. Displaced yet connected they are still influenced by the same elements of experience – war, distraction, and entanglement with both the country they left and the country they are in now.

The title is a metaphor for diverse perspectives, interpretations of reality, and life directions. Some works present narratives that mirror each other in tactile similarities and disrupted cultural contexts. Others Illustrate the meaning and relevance of having strong connections. 

Participating artists: Yelzaveta Derzhavnytska, EtchingRoom1, fantastic little splash, Dmytro Krasnyi, Anton Lapov, miki-mike 665, Mykhailo Shostak, Max Svitlo & Salt Salome


Parallel Vienna 2024:
Preview (by invitation only): September 11, 2024, 1–5 pm
Opening (public): September 11, 5–10 pm
Opening hours:
Thursday, September 12: 1–8 pm
Sunday, September 15, 11 am – 8 pm

Venue: Pavilion 16, Room 202, Otto-Wagner-Areal, Baumgartner Höhe 1, 1140 Vienna

Time Maschine

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Ukrainian Artist's Ceramic Ticket Installation Opens at Vienna’s Main Train Station

Office Ukraine together with ÖBB are honored to present Time Maschine, an art installation by Anastasiia Vasylchenko Mamay, a Ukrainian artist who fled her homeland in March 2022 due to the Russian full-scale invasion. This installation is featuring ceramic train tickets in the design of the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB).

The artworks are on view from August 19 until September 15 at the main train station of Vienna, directly in front of the Ticket Shop.

The official opening will take place on September 5 at 5 pm.

Anastasia Vasylchenko Mamay, who now resides in St. Pölten with her young son, has created this piece as a reflection of her experience of displacement and the altered perception of time that accompanies such profound life changes. The ticket, made entirely of porcelain, embodies the fragile yet enduring nature of memory and hope. Anastasia describes her project as a Time Machine—a symbolic return to the past, a tangible link to her home, and a manifestation of the complex emotions surrounding her forced migration. The installation includes eleven porcelain tickets, each carefully crafted and displayed in a specially designed showcase at the station.

‘Many of us Ukrainians have found ourselves in a different reality, our sense of time altered by the uncertainty of our situation,’ Anastasia shares. ‘This project represents the longing to return home, a desire shared by countless displaced people. The ticket, always valid, is my way of holding onto the hope that we can one day return.’

Time Maschine is not just a personal story but a universal exploration of displacement, resilience, and the search for identity. Visitors are encouraged to explore this moving piece of art.

We would like to thank the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport and Simon Mraz for the great support of this project.

For more information about the artist, the exhibition, or to schedule an interview, please contact Anastasiia Vasylchenko Mamay at anastasya.vasylchenko@gmail.com or Office Ukraine at office@artisthelp-ukraine.com