The third issue of Solomiya is as desperate as it is full of love, beauty, courage, and an unsettling longing for “a journey, an escape, and freedom,” as Yevhen, a young soldier from Odesa, puts it in War Dreams, a poignant series of portraits by Italian photographers Caimi&Piccini. While raising thought-provoking questions about masculinity in war through the recent work of Vsevolod Kazarin, Alex Mashtaler’s yet unpublished photographs juxtapose the innocence of youth with the unforgiving harshness of reality – a reality shaped by Ukraine’s colonial past and a present challenged by ongoing militarization. Interviews by the Solomiya editorial team with Asia Bazdyrieva, Maxim Dondyuk and Henrike Naumann about their research and artistic practice offer further insights into these complex contexts in Ukraine, a country marked by a colonial past and a present of ongoing militarization. While Ivanna Kozachenko and the artist collective Commercial Public Art dissect the spatial strategies of the architecture built by Russian forces in the occupied territories of Ukraine, the writings of Lucy Zoria and Sebastian Wells offer diverse insights into the lived experiences of young Ukrainians abroad.
