Anastasiia Olexii

The cultural institution “Mizhvukhamy” initiated a project called Wall Evidence aiming at documenting and presenting the graffiti left by the Russian military during the occupation of Ukrainian territories. As of today, the team has collected more than 300 images of inscriptions made by the occupiers in 8 regions of Ukraine. Some of these texts are purely technical, part of them are propaganda, and some are absurd and barbarian. 

The “Mizhvukhamy” team began collecting and archiving all of these images to show the world what real meanings the “Russian world” brings. For us, they serve as an opportunity to understand the motivation of Russian soldiers and to prove that their military atrocities were committed consciously.   

Currently, we continue to build the archive with images from open sources and by carrying out expeditions to the liberated territories. The comprehension and interpretation of the meanings of the messages of Russian soldiers is the next stage of our project on which the curatorial group will work. Processed material will be a part of an open archive of Russian soldiers' graffiti. 

The database consists of images sorted by location, containing detailed descriptions and credits. Collected material of visuals and texts will become the basis for creating an open archive of handwritten messages from Russians to Ukrainian people. Artists, curators, photographers, and researchers all over the world will be able to use this open archive for their projects to cover the war in Ukraine. 

“Mizhvukhamy” is an independent cultural institution based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Our goal is to transform the system of Ukrainian culture in order to center it around the creators of the intellectual and artistic product.