Sometimes it is the simplest things that call home to mind: a blanket left on the sofa, a light left on in the evening, an object that always rests in the same place. These small details create a sense of presence, allowing a space to become someone’s own. In the collages presented here, we also encounter such traces – everyday, ordinary objects that, in a new context, become the most vital links to home. It can be a place to which we return, but also an image that exists only in memory.
The works presented here were created during collage workshops led by the artist Maryna Siliakova, in which children and adults from Ukraine participated. Working with this technique became more than a lesson in composition – it opened a space for expressing the experience of migration as a structure composed of many layers: diverse memories, places, and moments in time.
The materials with which participants experimented – paper, fabrics, photographs, and plants – construct landscapes of both symbolic and actual homes. Within them, we find fragments of motherhood, symbols of nature, and elements of Ukrainian tradition, such as the wheat ear – a sign of abundance, yet also of a difficult history. Here, the brevity and imagination of children’s forms meet adults’ stories of loss and the efforts to make sense of their own lives.
The presence of cardboard – a material of transport and moving – underscores movement and impermanence. Particularly striking is the work in the form of an openable box, which, instead of a safe interior, contains falling bombs – an image that points to the painful proximity of home and danger.
The installation in this room is open-ended and processual in nature. These works can be co-created – adding a piece of oneself, pausing for a moment to ask: what does home mean to me?
Activities:
This installation is open and evolves on a daily basis. It is composed of moving elements and layers of imagery that transform in response to the presence of visitors. Join us in shaping a collaborative collage. Feel free to add your own element or engage with the developing composition.
