Lesia Kulchynska

Instagram: @lesiakulchinksa

Visual Artist

PhD, born in 1984, is a Kyiv-based art curator and visual studies researcher affiliated with the Research Platform of the Pinchuk Art Center. She taught cultural studies at the Kyiv Academy of Media Arts, worked as a curator at the Visual Culture Research Center and Set Independent Art Space (Kyiv). In 2018-19 was a Fulbright Scholar residing at New York University. Her research interests are the theory and history of the image and the theory of cinema. She is currently living as a refugee in Europe.

War Diary, 2022

From a distance we hear about war mostly from experts in geopolitics. How do we hear about real experiences of those who go through this war, about their visceral reactions and everyday struggle?

When Russia began to bomb Kyiv, my friend Lesia was trying to flee from Ukraine with her five-year-old daughter. Their life turned into anxiety, which torments you everyday not only from the outside reality and media news but also from inside your own body.

This series of watercolor drawings are an attempt to find some relief while externalizing this terrifying pain.

--Oksana Briukhovetska