Post-Industrial Memory Lab: Decolonizing Kryvyi Rih

Illustration

Deadline: December 12, 23:59
Location: Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine

Kryvyi Rih is one of the largest industrial cities in Ukraine, with landscapes and cultural memory shaped by decades of Soviet industrialization, extractive economies, and centralized planning. In the context of war and ongoing societal transformation, there is an urgent need to reinterpret these narratives, decolonize urban spaces, and open new ways of speaking about the region’s identity and future. The residency is organized in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Ukraine.
Post-Industrial Memory Lab provides a platform for researching post-industrial landscapes, workers’ museums, enterprise archives, abandoned industrial zones, and histories of labor. Participants will work with these “living archives,” creating new artistic statements on memory, decolonization, and recovery. The residency will culminate in a final exhibition curated by Kostiantyn Doroshenko.
We welcome applications from Ukrainian artists working in contemporary art, site-specific practices, documentary and archival approaches, photography, video, sound art, installation, performance, mixed media, post-industrial research, and socially engaged art. Artists exploring memory, decolonization, industrial heritage, spatial narratives, labor histories, or fieldwork-based practices are especially encouraged to apply.
We offer:
Travel to and from Kryvyi Rih (all expenses covered)Curatorial support from Kostiantyn DoroshenkoAccess to industrial and post-industrial sitesProduction of a new artwork for the final exhibition (materials provided)Opportunity to present your work during public artist talksPublication of artworks in the KRCC digital archive
We expect:
Research of industrial territories, workers’ museums, and archivesCreation of a new artwork during the residencyParticipation in artist talksParticipation in the final exhibition

Public initiative designed to develop Kryvyi Rih

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Public initiative designed to develop Kryvyi Rih

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