Four-week residencies in Donetsk brought together eight photographers from different countries, selected through an open call for applications: Richard Ansett, Nuno Barroso, Marina Black, Marco Citron, Homer (Sasha Kurmaz), Flávia Junqueira, Natasha Pavlovska, and Oleksandr Strynadka. Under the curatorial guidance of Boris Mikhailov, the participants were invited on a creative journey during which they explored the history of the city’s spatial development, offered their own interpretations, and created a series of photographs reflecting their vision of this year’s curatorial theme – Variable Cloudiness.

The aim of the residency program is to draw the attention of artists from around the world to the Donetsk region as a new space for the development of contemporary art, as well as to facilitate the creation of new works that, through the given curatorial theme, reflect the artists’ confrontation with contemporary Donetsk.

As a result of the open call, eight finalists were selected from 280 applications submitted by artists from 40 countries.

Over the course of four weeks in the summer of 2011, the eight participants lived in Donetsk and, with the help of assistants, worked on the creation of new projects. In addition, the artists held eight events (lectures and workshops) for the local community and participated in various interactive activities with local artists, volunteers, and representatives of civil and cultural organizations.

Although the projects were created with local context in mind, they reflect a quest for answers to questions of global significance: how to rid ourselves of the burden of history, the weight of mistakes and illusions? How to overcome the prevailing pessimism and fear in society? Could our limitations actually become our salvation—if only we learn to see, feel, and act differently?

Project participants: Marco Citron, Marina Black, Homer (Sasha Kurmaz), Richard Ansett, Natasha Pavlovska, Oleksandr Strynadka, Nuno Barroso, Flávia Junqueira. Conceptual Director: Boris Mikhailov.

Curators: Viktoria Ivanova, Olena Chervonyk, Dima Sergeev.