Displaced Ukrainian artists in Finland:
Professional Integration and Resilience
Oleksandra Nenko
Dr.Sc., TIAS University of Turku collegium researcher,
UNIARTS visiting researcher
Ton Melnyk,
Helsinki-based Ukrainian artist
Research project supported by the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters in 2024-2025
Outline of the presentation:
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Theoretical standpoints
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Research design
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Trajectories of Ukrainian artists
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From displacement to placement
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Ongoing work and future steps
Lesya Synychenko
500 kilograms of despair near my windows in Chernihiv, 2022
Interconnection of identity and place
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Individuals’ cognitions, emotions, and actions are shaped by the material settings in which they unfold (Altman & Low, 1992, Proshansky, Fabian & Kaminoff, 1983).
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Primary function of place is to engender a sense of belonging and attachment (Tuan 1980).
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Place identities are identities of places themselves and the personal place identities of the people who inhabit them.
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Emplacement - a personal or social effort to restructure the place within multiscalar networks of power (Çağlar & Glick-Schiller 2017).
Lesya Synychenko
Untitled, 2022
Displacement and emplacement practices
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If the ordered, known, habitual places (landscapes) are disrupted or violated, this calls for cognitive and performative actions to re-order, re-conceptualize, re-frame, re-shape the place identities (Brown & Perkins, 1992).
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The idea or the memory of a forced journey trigger a wide array of responses, contributing to formation of reflective discourses, restorative practices or embodied memory experiences (Svasek 2012).
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Engagement with past, present and future situations becomes a way to replace from ‘a vacuum form of experience with no references, no criteria of definition, nor modes of identification’ and place oneself instead into a system of living, cultural values and practices (Makaremi, 2011: 75).
Theoretical Standpoints.
Interconnection of identity and place
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Individuals’ cognitions, emotions, and actions are shaped by the material settings in which they unfold (Altman & Low, 1992, Proshansky, Fabian & Kaminoff, 1983).
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Primary function of place is to engender a sense of belonging and attachment (Tuan 1980).
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Place identities are identities of places themselves and the personal place identities of the people who inhabit them.
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Emplacement - a personal or social effort to restructure the place within multiscalar networks of power (Çağlar & Glick-Schiller 2017).
Research
design
Timeline: September 2024-May 2025 - research phase, action research activities - ongoing
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Interviews with Ukrainian artists who moved or temporarily came to Finland after the start of the full scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine (20)
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Interviews with the representatives of the Finnish art scene who are to various extents involved with Ukrainian artists (6)
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Participatory observations at art events in Finland featuring Ukrainian artists (4)
Yuliia Ivanytska
Artdonation, 2025
Finding artists-participants
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Reaching out to the artists and alumni of emergency art residences in Finland. 2 most important networks: Artist At Risk and Ukraine Solidarity Residence Programme of Helsinki International Artist Programme (USRP HIAP)
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Other places to meet artists (Open University courses, activist events)
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Snowballing approach
Similar approach was applied to find representatives of the Finnish art scene who are to various extents involved with Ukrainian artists
Backgrounds of artists-participants
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Gender: female, non-binary
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Age: 21 - the youngest, 55 - the oldest
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All regions of Ukraine: East (Kharkiv, Mariupol, Dnipro), West (Rivne, Ternopil), South (Odessa), Centre (Kyiv)
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Professional education: MA degree, BA degree, special professional, unfinished higher education
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Spheres of art: visual art (painting, graphics, illustration), photography, video art, performance, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, textile art, curatorship
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Wartime experience: lost (occupied) home cities; ruined homes; parents/partners/communities left in Ukraine
Textile Book of Items Inside an Emergency Bag,curated by Ton Melnyk and Masha Ravlyk, 2022
Legalization trajectory
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100% of participants have a temporary protection status for Ukrainians
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not a specialist/work-based permit
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permit associated limits
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uncertainty of yearly continuation
Textile Book of Items Inside an Emergency Bag,curated by Ton Melnyk and Masha Ravlyk, 2022
Trajectories
in time
and space
Duration & periodicity of stay in Finland
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short-term one-time - e.g., one time stay in an emergency art residence
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repeated visits - e.g., coming to various art residences
long-term stay - finding ways to stay in Finland
Stanislava Ovchinnikova
Understanding the urgency, 2023
Geography of stay in Finland
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rural - remote residences, e.g. in North Karelia, South Ostrobothnia
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urban - living in comparatively big cities, e.g. Joensuu, Kuopio, Hämeenlinna
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metropolitan - living in Helsinki and its area
(Professional) employment trajectories
Three basic tracks for long-terms:
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migrant integration + personal artistic practice (sometimes limited); support from Red Cross (1st year), then KELA; TE toimisto: language courses, internships; additional education in an alternative sphere
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partial or full time employment in creative/non-creative sphere + personal artistic practice (sometimes limited)
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grant-based artistic employment (and sometimes selling artworks)
Natalia Deineka
Roads
Networking trajectories
Networking with Finns
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networks based on first emergency residences contacts, most important USRP HIAP and Artist at Risk networks
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memberships in HIAA (Helsinki International Artists Association), regional art associations
Networking with other Ukrainians
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Ukrainian Association in Finland, incl. Ukrainian Centre in Helsinki
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local communities of Ukrainians
Networking with other foreigners or in mixed communities
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activist communities
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queer communities
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migrant communities (e.g., Startup Refugees)
Trajectories in time
and space
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“Being an artist in Finland”
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Grant-searching/writing
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Peer-to-peer learning
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Finding exhibition spaces
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Collaborating with professional curators
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Selling artworks
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Professional networking
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Community of Ukrainian artists
Maya Kolesnik
Museum of interesting science after shelling, 2024
From displacement to placement
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New professional identities, including Ukrainian artist, artist-citizen, artist-activist.
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New themes and discourses in work (war and war related issues), though professional style and artistic media mostly evolve “naturally” (without dramatic change).
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Restoration of continuity of Self in time and space in everyday and artistic practice, including processing of traumatic wartime experiences.
Bodily, mental, spiritual connection-building and processual “embedding” in the Finnish landscape and rhythm, “landing” into Finnish environment and nature, in-person “here and now” presence after depersonalisation
Maryna Semenkova
performance at Woman in Times of War exhibition, 2024
Ongoing work and
future steps
1. Action research activities:
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Online platform “Ukrainian Artists in Finland”
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Symposium with Ukrainian and Finnish artists and representatives of arts and culture (autumn 2025)
2. Research activities: -
Research papers
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Collective artistic-research book
Stanislava Ovchinnikova
Notation for the Surveyors of the Interminable, 2025
Displaced Ukrainian artists in Finland: Professional Integration and Resilience.
Research Project Findings
Contacts:
Oleksandra: oleksandra.nenko@utu.fi
Ton: svitlechko@gmail.com
Research project supported by the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters in 2024-2025