“Sense of Safety” is an international art project highlighting the core exhibition of the same name in the YermilovCentre in Kharkiv, Ukraine surrounded by an open network of more than 20 cross-institutional events across 12 countries united as a “Bridges of Solidarity”. The project emerges from the urgent need to respond to the dire situation in Kharkiv, in North-East Ukraine, around 50 kilometers from the Russian border and subjected to daily shelling.

The idea of the project is to emphasize Kharkiv as an important part of the global world, its cultural, scientific and political importance, to draw the whole world into Kharkiv and Kharkiv into the world by promoting the exchange of connections, information, togetherness and interdependency.

The heart of the project was driven by the fact that in the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the YermilovCentre occasionally turned out to be a real shelter for the artistic community. Nevertheless, it has never ceased its professional activity.

Structure of The International Art Project Sense Of Safety

Sense of Safety exhibition: The exhibition in the YermilovCentre is featuring works from 31 individual artists and collectives representing over 10 countries, including a significant percentage of new commissions. The exhibition represents a wide range of artistic practices and media such as video, painting, photography, installation, sculpture, participatory practices and site-specific works among others. The exhibition is built around the ambivalence of the concept of safety, which has been profoundly redefined by the war. It also touches upon the idea that safety is understood not only as a feeling, but above all as an infrastructure of care, communication as a safe place, supported by vulnerable bodies, by the efforts of people, communities, and institutions. The ambivalence of safety is broken through the ideas of post-traumatic in-growth and the desire for routine actions as safe-gaining. The exhibition demonstrates different perspectives and modalities of understanding and perception of safety — from children's rituals to educational practices, from the search for self-stabilization and self-soothing to collective creative action.

The Bridges of Solidarity: One of the main conceptual axes of the project is the idea of interdependence and mutual connectedness, which is embodied in re-imagining of the exhibition as a medium through experimentation, expanded forms pulling Kharkiv outwards and other geographical locations into Kharkiv. Aiming to counter the isolation imposed by the war, it integrates online and offline events into a unified space — The Bridges of Solidarity, involving more than 20 both well established and grassroot partner institutions (ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany, nGbK, Berlin, Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, Roma Community Center in Warsaw, Bouillon Group in Tbilisi, Cobra Museum, Amstelveen, the Netherlands etc.). Designed to act as bridges, the series of events facilitates two-way interaction and connection between the international community and Kharkiv. These events aim to foster solidarity and mutual support.

Online Platform:The entire project is connected through the online platform, which serves as the information hub and navigation tool. This platform allows visitors at any of our dispersed event locations to explore the entire project, watch live video streams from the YermilovCentre, and view broadcasts from partner institutions. Visitors in Kharkiv and around the world can access information about any event, artist or an artwork and personally participate in hybrid online/offline workshops, lectures, and discussions. The online platform aims to create a communication network, reducing distances and fostering ongoing connections.

Main Idea of the Project

The main topic of the project is built around the ambivalence of the concept of safety, which has been profoundly redefined by the war. It also touches upon the idea that safety is understood not only as a feeling, but above all as an infrastructure of care, communication as a safe place, supported by vulnerable bodies, by the efforts of people, communities, and institutions. The ambivalence of safety is broken through the ideas of post-traumatic in-growth and the desire for routine actions as safe-gaining. The aim of the project is to demonstrate different perspectives and modalities of understanding and perception of safety — from children's rituals to educational practices, from the search for self-stabilization and self-soothing to collective creative action. “The Sense of Safety” project also seeks to create lasting connections and support mechanisms between Kharkiv and the international community.

By fostering these gestures of solidarity, the project reintroduces Kharkiv as part of the world heritage. It is the city of arts, science and technology with Nobel Prize winners physicist Lev Landau, biologist Ilya Mechnikov and economist Semen Kuznets, avant garde artists Borys Kosarev and Vasyl Yermilov, Hasselblad Award Winner Boris Mikhailov, Oscar Winner Mstyslav Chernov among others. And still Kharkiv continues to be a grand city — from avant-garde thought to the cutting-edge physics essential for the Large Hadron Collider, it is a place where the fight for democratic values is happening in real-time.

TRIGGER WARNING

Some of the exhibited artworks may include content some people may find offensive or disturbing.