Laktionova
Director, Editor, Visual artist
Where to go? Where to go.
"Where to go? Where to go.", 2020
Digital photo
Window Gallery, Czech Centre, Sofia (Bulgaria)

The war in Ukraine began in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea and attacked the Donbass. I come from Mariupol, Donetsk region, which is located in the east of Ukraine near the border with Russia. When the area where my parents lived was shelled from hail, my dad was wounded, I suggested that my parents move to me in Kyiv. It is difficult for older people to change their place of residence, and for several years their parents lived under constant shelling. My mother died due to environmental cancer in Mariupol and the stress of the war. On one of my visits to Mariupol after the death of my mother, I saw hundreds of dead jellyfish washed up on the coast. When asked why you don’t want to leave, shortly before her death, mom answered: Who needs us there? Where to go.

Window Gallery, Czech Centre, Sofia (Bulgaria)

"MUHi 2009-2021" exhibition catalogue
Publications/ Catalogs
2022 - Bird in flight - У Болгарії презентують проєкт «Галерея у вікні», присвячений роботам українських художників
2022 - Shcherbenko Art Centre - The window gallery opening in Sofia, Bulgaria, with the exhibition by Zoya Laktionova ‘Where to go? Where to go.’
2021 - MUHi 2009-2021, exhibition catalogue. Language: ukrainian.
100 days of war
"100 days of war", 2022
Digital photo

On February 25, 2022, I was forced to leave Kyiv in a hurry, and then Ukraine. On February 24, Russia launched a full-scale war in Ukraine. Returning three months later to my apartment in Kyiv, I found my products in the same place where I had left them. On the 100th day of the war, I photographed a pumpkin that had remained in one place all this time.
Trees
"Trees", 2018
AkT artspace, Kyiv (Ukraine)
Description:
"I have come to this beach many times and imagined those who were there before me. I came back here to make portraits of trees that remember all the people who came to the sea in Mariupol and left them scars."


