Dnipro is a city that has rapidly transformed — and continues to transform — its landscape, appearance, the very essence of its “places of power” (architectural structures, familiar locations), and even its toponymy (what things are called). This has taken on an additional dimension during the full-scale war due to Russian shelling and significant migration. What is the memory of Dnipro, and what is the memory about Dnipro? How are stories about people inseparably linked with stories about buildings, the embankment, shopping centres, cinemas, kindergartens, offices, sports institutions, and parks? How can one sense the pace of these shifts and the scale of the changes?
“The Museum of Forgetting” is a series of our projects that combines research and artistic expression. We are interested in forgetting as a counter-shape of memory: the desired repression of the unpleasant; the negotiated removal of what is no longer suitable; destruction through physical decay; dynamic change driven by the need for renewal; and many other processes — material, ideological, collective, and personal, both tragic and everyday.
We created the Dnipro installation based on stories collected through an open call, where we asked two questions: what would you like to forget, and what, on the contrary, would you want to carefully preserve? The installation features multiple media: video, sound, archival documents, images, sculptures, and an interactive object that invites you to contribute your own story to the machinery of forgetting.
Dasha Podoltseva, Oleksiy Shmurak
WHEN: March 25 – May 23, 2026
WHERE: Artsvit Gallery, 21a Krutohirny descent, Dnipro (entrance through the glass doors from Uspenska Square)
ADMISSION FREE
Dasha Podoltseva is a visual artist and graphic designer from Kyiv. In addition to creating site-specific installations and graphic works, she curates exhibitions, runs workshops and teaches. In 2023, she won first prize at the 28th International Poster Biennale in Warsaw, and in 2024, the Gold Award at the 14th International Poster Triennial in Toyama, both for her work (Unwanted) Harvest. Her recent projects include: The Beauty of Care (Ukrainian Pavilion, Venice Biennale), Since We Are Here (Matera, Italy), Fernster zur Welt: Ukraine (Kunsthaus Zofingen, Switzerland), Fragile Brutalism (London Festival of Architecture, UK), Netscape (Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv), More than (Ukrainian House, Kyiv), as well as an artist residency at the Martin Roth Initiative (Zeitz, Germany).
Oleksiy Shmurak is a composer, sound artist and lecturer. In his music, Oleksii explores themes of corporeality, linguistic differences and ontology. Oleksii’s music has been performed at concerts and festivals in the USA, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania, France, Italy, Switzerland and Poland. He composes film music; his soundtrack for the film *Timestamp* by director Kateryna Gornostay has received numerous accolades from the international press. As an educator, he gives lectures and workshops and writes essays on critical listening, the political and social aspects of music, and the boundaries between disciplines and discourses.
The project is being implemented as part of the RIBBON International “KEY WORK: Art Grants” program in partnership with the Jam Factory Art Center.
