At the beginning of June 2023, I was on an artist residency in Lviv, Ukraine. EU and Ukrainian artists came together to find an artistic answer to the war. During this residency, we learned from Ukrainian art historians, curators, and photographers about Ukrainian culture and how they are trying to decolonize it from Russian appropriation. Many Ukrainian artists in the past were labelled as Russian and now that Ukraine is looking for its national identity it is making it clear through research and activism that many artists were Ukrainian and not Russian.
Besides the lectures and seminars, some participants gave workshops. People with a theatre background gave workshops around movement and improvisation, graphic artists showed their work. I talked about my sonification work. In a certain way, I felt that the stress and trauma the Ukrainians feel during this war are somewhat similar to the police violence and stress that Brazilians experience in the favelas, so I showed the Outros Registros project I did in Brazil a few years ago. Obviously, there is a difference in the physical impact, but the stress and trauma are very similar.
We also got a chance to meet with the EU delegation in Ukraine to talk about future collaborations. This residency was very useful to connect with Ukrainian artists, getting to know the cultural scene, and inventing new projects to work on.

The residency was organized by Internews, a media organisation and had support from the EU.