an exhibition about women’s resistance to the occupation in Crimea

Resistance often takes on a masculine face. However, among the political prisoners illegally imprisoned by Russia in Crimea, there are many women. For ten years, they cannot see their relatives, get the necessary medicines or proper treatment, but they still dare to openly fight for their values ​​and identity.

The exhibition “Brick and mortar” presents the diversity of women’s experiences from Crimea – journalists, activists, lawyers, doctors, soldiers, wives of political prisoners – through the works of female artists Alytyna Kahidze, Liya Dostleva, Emina Ziyatdinova, Maria Kulikovskagroups “Women’s Resistance Movement “Zla Mavka”, Yulia Po.

Stories of brave Crimean women can be seen in an unusual place – right in the office of the Representation of the President of Ukraine in Crimea until May 13. UP Culture tells about the exhibition and its heroines.

“Lomykamin” meets with sad statistics: Russia has illegally imprisoned 208 women in Crimea. The exhibition turns these statistics into real stories and names. And the fact that they can sound today, during a full-scale war, testifies to the endurance of the struggle and the readiness to endure it to the last.

Like a flint flower that grows in adverse conditions, these stories reach us through rocks and dirt, and you can never take their sound for granted. There was always a risk that someone’s word would be lost, destroyed or put behind bars, so you value it in a special way, recognize its weight.

Such are the words of many women who are resisting the Russian invaders in Crimea. Curator of the exhibition Tatyana Filevska says: “War does not bypass anyone on the basis of gender, and women are also part of this war. Their experiences are equally important.” “Breakstone” becomes a collection of different strategies of women’s resistance, and they turn into a polyphony that is impossible not to hear.

Several projects open the exhibition at once Alektyny Kakhidze. The artist herself calls the space with her works a “total installation” or a “visualization of the history of Crimea.” The woman whose stories Alevtyna often turns to is a human rights defender and journalist Iryna Danylovych.

The Russian occupation authorities arrested her in 2022 in Crimea, and in this imprisonment, Iryna gradually loses her hearing. Her health is deteriorating, but in the works of Alytyna Kakhidze, she is first of all a woman who tattooed “Freedom is a religion” and has the courage to stand up to the enemy authorities in court proceedings.

One of Alytyna’s works is a table listing women who are political prisoners in Crimea. The artist notes their names and surnames, and next to them is the sentence handed down to them and its duration. Among the names of the prisoners – Tetyana Kuzmenko, Leniye Umerova, Nina Malakhova, Iryna Horobtsova and other.

Two works were created by Alletka specially for the exhibition, shortly before its opening. One of them is called “Mumine Murtaza-Karabash” – named after a 93-year-old member of the Crimean Tatar national movement, who died this year in occupied Crimea.

Alevtyna draws three years around the history of Mumine – 1968, 1987 and 2014. These are the years when Mumine returned to the Motherland in Crimea after numerous deportations. The artist says that every person of the Crimean Tatar people knows the name Mumine Murtazy-Karabash.

In October in Prague, during the Summit of the Crimean Platform, Alevtyna presented the artistic intervention “Making spaces”. Creating drawings and collages in real time, the artist recreated the history of Crimea, starting from the most ancient times, showing that it is a part of Ukraine. In the space of the exhibition, you can also see the creation process itself, because in the middle of the “total installation” there is a screen where Alevtyna gradually layers various objects for a collage.

In the next hall we see a series of photographs Emina Ziyatdinova – a documentary photograph of Crimean Tatar origin. During 2008-2021, she recorded four generations of her family, starting with her grandmother. Thanks to these photos, we trace how peaceful life in Crimea transforms into a war reality, where your home is under threat.

Here, in one of the photos, Grandma Emine sniffs the basil she grew in her garden. Already on another, we see a woman kissing the cross on the grave of her son Andriy. The latter died of a liver disease: for several years he underwent methadone replacement therapy, and in the occupied Crimea he did not have the opportunity to receive it, because the Russians banned it.

The series of photographs ends with an unknown and a crossroads. In one of the photos, a group of girls are looking into the horizon, not knowing what will happen next. Another photo reproduces the cold, snowy landscape of Bakhchysaray. The story continues.

Another of Emine’s works is the installation “Crimean House”, made in the kitchen of the Presidential Representation in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. It is dedicated to the history of the artist’s family and is built according to the principle of a cozy corner in the kitchen. We see a table with cups, under the table – family photos.

In reality, Emine chatted with her grandmother in the kitchen and learned about the deportation history of several generations of their family. In this way, Emine once again returns to the question of her own identity, because, despite the year 2024, she is threatened, and to Crimea, which she is deprived of again.

Diary formats now come in handy in recording war stories. One of the series at the exhibition is the artist’s diary entries Julia Po “Green men”. The artist says that these recordings were not initially conceived as a full-fledged work.

While in Kyiv, Yulia took notes on how the occupation of Crimea took place, using people’s stories, their photos and videos, screens from live broadcasts. All photos are black and white, and only the “men” who are gradually capturing Crimea are highlighted in green.

The following project also resembles a diary format. This is a collection of stories of the women’s resistance movement “Evil Mavka”. It arose in occupied Melitopol, already during the full-scale invasion, and united activists from various Ukrainian territories temporarily captured by the Russians. Participants of this movement share their own stories, in particular, about how life is changing in Crimea now, in the Telegram channel.

The exhibition presents their stories from November 21 last year to February 8 this year. We see the dynamics of life in Crimea: despite the occupation, the peninsula is not encapsulated in one state.

Tatyana Filevska emphasizes the importance of the project: “It is very important to hear these stories, because for women in the occupation it may be the only way to talk about their feelings and what is happening to them.”

Installation Liya Dostleva and Julia Po “Beach” is designed to unite Ukrainians from different regions. The unifying element for this was the Crimean stones collected during trips to the peninsula. Mystics gather these stones in one place, saying that each of us has our own memory of Crimea, and together they become numerous stories.

Especially for the installation, people handed over the pebbles they had left over from their trips. For example, a boy suddenly found one of the stones in his backpack when he was leaving Donetsk under shelling.

An artist and performer in the courtyard of the Representation Maria Kulikovska recreated the “Fly the Crimea” campaign, which was first organized in 2016. Maria spent three days on a life raft with a neon Crimea sign, depending on the sympathy and participation of other people. This is how the artist reflected the vulnerability of people who lost their homes.

The exhibition is complemented by curator Tetyana Filevska’s research on life Lesya Ukrainka in Crimea. Since the writer was treated and worked there for three years, it had a noticeable effect on her biography. In the Crimea, Lesya gets acquainted with ancient Greek culture and the name of Iphigenia, the heroine of the ancient Greek epic about the Trojan War.

The main action of the ancient tragedy “Iphigenia in Tauris” takes place in the Crimea, and Lesya Ukrainka remakes it, creating the play “Iphigenia in Tauris”. Unfortunately, it was not possible to finish it during the writer’s lifetime, but some of the manuscripts have survived. Its copies are presented at the exhibition.

The Kosachi family also preserved sketches that resemble the Crimean Tatar ornament. Next to it, at the exhibition, a floral composition of a broken stone was created – it was Lesya Ukrainka who gave the poetic name to this flower.

In the background, we can hear a few seconds of a recording of Lesya’s real voice, as well as a recitation Tashevoy’s Tamils – permanent representative of the President of Ukraine in Crimea. She reads excerpts from “Iphigenia in Tauride”, which resonate well in modern times.

In this way, Lesya Ukrainka becomes a figure that connects past and present activism in Crimea, shows the durability of this tradition.

Curator Tetyana Filevska hopes that after being exhibited in Kyiv, “Bombstone” will travel to other cities of Ukraine and become accessible to a larger number of people. Remembering the names that are important to us, talking about their experiences is also thinking about the future.

The initiator of the exhibition Tamil Tasheva emphasizes: “It is important for us to talk about these women, to mention their names so that they are not forgotten. We hope that we will be able to talk about women’s resistance when we open the Museum of the Russian occupation in Crimea.”

And while these women are fighting for their freedom in the occupation, we in freedom can fight for the volume of their voices.