SONIAKH is a platform amplifying voices and visions from Ukraine and those of Ukraine’s allies and neighbors—by artists, activists, and scholars—in response to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and its worldwide propaganda machine. It strongly supports Ukrainian statehood and the right of Ukrainians to defend themselves against the Russian colonial invasion. SONIAKH is developing a curatorial framework to examine possible sites of/for Ukrainian subjectivity in the broader context of post- and decolonial processes and to explore the repercussions of Russian colonialism on national and ethnic identities both in Ukraine and beyond. SONIAKH strives to shed light on personal histories, employing the formats of artistic research and conversations with critical, phenomenological and psychoanalytic stances. 

SONIAKH [eng: SUNFLOWER] is named after an act of resistance carried out by an anonymous woman, an inhabitant of Henichesk, Kherson Oblast, southern Ukraine. On 24 February 2022, the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she approached a Russian occupying soldier offering him a handful of sunflower seeds: “Put some seeds in your pocket, so that they will grow on Ukrainian land when you die”. SONIAKH as a name refers to the process of sublimation and reconstruction, whereby destruction is turned into new life.

Curators: Milena Khomchenko and Valeriia Buradzhyieva

contact: soniakh.digest@gmail.com

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As of 2024, SONIAKH is run independently by its curators with the support from the Ukrainian NGO Cultural Geographies. The SONIAKH founding collective comprised artists, curators, journalists, editors, media experts and academics from Ukraine, together with allies united in solidarity with Ukraine. SONIAKH was affiliated with the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and the Office for Postartistic Services during 2022-2023 and supported by grants from the European Cultural Foundation and Sigrid Rausing Trust.

Co-Founding Collective: Valeriia Buradzhyieva, Sebastian Cichocki, Agata Cieslak, Jakub Depczyński, Olga Dziubak, Milena Khomchenko, Yulia Krivich, Joanna Łałowska, Michał Murawski, Clemens Poole, Oleksiy Radynski, Marta Romankiv, Natalia Sielewicz, Kuba Szreder, Vladyslav Vazheyevskyy, Mariia Vorotilina
Website Design: Joanna Łałowska, Olga Dziubak, Agata Cieślak.
Coding: Aleksandra Gajda

SONIAKH supports Ukrainian creators. The SONIAKH logotype was designed by Ukrainian designer Nata Nagovitsyna. Headings are typeset with Monofontis, designed by Ukrainian design studio AlfaBravo, and body text is typeset with Accia Piano, designed by Ukrainian type foundry Mint Type.