mariia Lemperk - To sew onto life

Artist - Mariia Mytrofanova
Curators - Valeriia Pliekhotko and Sonia Yukhymova.

The name of the project refers to a metaphorical expression from the Ukrainian language, which denotes a sensitive topic and the process of discussing it with the person it touches, that is, talking about something sensual, painful, intimate.

"To Sew onto Life" was initiated a year ago as an immediate reaction to the situation of the beginning of the full-scale invasion of russia on the territory of Ukraine. At a time when individual reflection seemed insufficient, because the personal could not be separated from the awareness of common unity in the face of reality. This awareness of the importance of every thought, sentence, word, exclamation that appears during this war, and the unwillingness to lose them led to the creation of this project as a cooperation between artist and writers. The expression, as is inherent to it, is separated from the author, acquires the characteristics of belonging to everyone to whom this feeling responds, inhibits the skin, becomes part of the identity, because one can find refuge from one's own vulnerability and trauma in art.

Authors of the texts: Danylo Galyko, Yevgenia Belorusets, Mykyta Kozachinsky, Sonia Yukhymova, Marianna Maksymova (Eva Raiska).
The project was created with the support of Goethe Institute as part of an emergency aid grant for cultural workers.
The project is on view from March 31 to May 5, 2023 at Art space in exile “Hotel Continental” , Elsenstraße 87, 12435 Berlin.

Text: Valeriia Pliekhotko