Group exhibition “I remember this place because it remembers me”

On August 19, the opening of the group exhibition “I Remember This Place, Because It Remembers Me” took place as part of the annual Spilne Art program at 3.6.9 Space Kyiv. The exhibition featured works by Anton Saienko, Bohdan Lokatyr, Vasyl Tkachenko (Lyakha), Margarita Zhurunova, Anna Taradina, Natalia Lisova, Vitaliy Kokhan, Hanna Ghidora, and Eva Kafidova. The project was curated by Kateryna Tsyhykalo and Tetyana Gauk.

The project calls for a return to the cities and places that give us strength. In times of deep fatigue, loss, and uncertainty, we intuitively reach for points of support — real or imaginary, external or internal. The format of place here is not literal: it can be a city you want to return to, a room from your childhood, the smell of fresh bread, a view from the window, the air after the rain, the taste of your mother’s cooking, the touch of the bark of a tree that is still standing. These are spaces that stitch us together, keep us afloat, give bodies to our memory and our presence.

Place is not only geography, but also an emotional state. It can be a memory, a dream, a fictional landscape. It can be a point to which we return in our imagination when things get tough. But for a long time now, for many, the place itself has become just a memory. War mercilessly wipes out entire cities that were home, light, and foundation for someone. We watch as real places transform into phantom ones — they no longer exist in the physical dimension, but continue to live within us.

This project is an attempt to compile a map of inner cities, intimate territories that nourish and sustain us. This is a dialogue with our own sources of strength. We want to ask the question: Where is your point of strength? What place holds you? What restores you when everything collapses?

The exhibition brings together artistic expressions that explore the experience of losing and finding a place — both physical and mental. It is a space for nostalgia, but also for affirmation: even if a place is destroyed, its presence in us can provide resistance. Through art, we look for new ways to remember, live, and return — again and again — to a place where it becomes easier for us to breathe.

The exhibition lasted: August 19 – September 15 at 3.6.9 Space Kyiv, at 24 Stryletska Street. You can find out more about the annual exhibition program on the Instagram pages of the Spilne Art platform and 3.6.9 Space Kyiv.

The full list of works in the exhibition can be found at the link