Sense of Safety
Art in a Time of War
Foundation antiwarcoalition.art

Can Art Offer Shelter?

The art project Sense of Safety is set against the backdrop of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and the relentless bombardments of Kharkiv. It is centered on an exhibition at the Yermilov Centre that turned out to be one of the safest places in the city and occasionally serving as a shelter. The exhibition brings together over 30 Ukrainian and international artists. Using installations, participatory performances, and videos, they evoke rituals of everyday communalization, reorganize spaces, and foster communication to create a semblance of stability and safety. In this way, the initiators created an international network of participating artists and institutions far beyond the bunker. 

Exploring themes of safety from political, bodily, existential, social, and economic perspectives, the publication Sense of Safety surveys the role of art in times of war—its capacity to build infrastructures of care and spaces of solidarity. With essays by Oksana Barshynova, Boris Buden, Borys Filonenko, Alona Karavai, Maryna Konieva, Bojana Piškur, Lena Prents & Nataliia Ivanova, Tetyana Pylypchuk, Maxim Rosenfeld, Oleksandr Sorokin, Antonina Stebur, Asia Tsisar, Serhiy Zhadan

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, *foundationClass, _mediaklub

The publication is initiated by the Foundation antiwarcoalition.art and co-published with ilostmylibrary. The publication is supported by Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung, ZKM | Center for Art and Media, and Fondation Antoine de Galbert.