Art as Therapy: Ukrainian Creators Find Refuge and Inspiration in Olot

OlotFor one week, from September 13 to 21, the artistic residence Faberllull de Olot It becomes a refuge sheltered from war, far from bombs and stress, for five Ukrainian creators who cannot dedicate themselves to art in peace in their country. They are the video artists and writers Katerina Krokha and Hanna Trofimova; composer Evgenia Marchuk; the scientist and ceramist Halina Istomina, and the fashion designer and illustrator Inna Sych. They are all fleeing – some with children and family – from the war in Ukraine.

In the residence in the capital of La Garrotxa they have found the climate of calm, understanding and support necessary to work on their projects. Most of them did not know each other before living together this week and there they have built complicities and found many points in common. They all take the war that they have experienced first-hand as the thematic axis of their works and understand art as a process of personal therapy to overcome trauma and denounce the situation of their country in the world. Since the outbreak of the war, many Ukrainian women have signed up for residency at this center of the Institut Ramon Llull and now, for the first time, five women of the same nationality coincide for a week.

Understanding the emotions of war

“I live in Kiiv and there I don’t feel calm, but rather anguished by the constant drone attacks and the danger of bombs. That’s why I look for projects abroad so I can go and create in a safe environment,” explains Hanna Trofimova. “Until two years ago I thought I would live in a peaceful world, that wars were a thing of the past, and now in Ukraine we no longer have that future assured.” For Trofimova, the role of art in the context of a war conflict is fundamental: “The news explains the military movements and the events of war, but through art we can try to understand the emotions of the people who experience these events closely. “, defends the video creator. The artistic proposal that she will work on in Olot goes along these lines: she explores in first person how feelings are blocked as a protection mechanism to be able to survive the traumatic events of a war. “You live in a depressed state and stop feeling both negative and positive feelings,” she concludes.

War, “a surreal dream”

Katerina Krokha, who also creates through images and texts, was born in Donetsk, one of the most dangerous areas, next to the Russian border, and has now moved to live in a less threatened region of the country. In the midst of the Russian attack, she has filmed on the front line the destruction of the invading army, such as the blowing up of the Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power station on June 6, which caused very virulent floods and seriously affected the civilian population. In Olot he will try to edit all that audiovisual material to put together a short documentary film. “I went there, I have the images engraved in my mind of the water destroying towns and carrying away people and animals, but, for me, it is still like a surreal dream borne of my imagination, as if it had not really happened,” he says.