KRCC Is Looking for Residents’ Stories for the Exhibition “Tell Me Your Story About Kryvyi Rih”

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Submission deadline: 27 September 2026
Where: Kryvyi Rih and across Ukraine

What does Kryvyi Rih look like when its history is told not through textbooks, official dates and events, but through the lives of people who were born here, worked here, fell in love, moved from one neighbourhood to another, left and returned, arrived from elsewhere, witnessed the city change, and changed along with it?
The Kryvyi Rih Center for Contemporary Culture / KRCC is launching an open call for residents’ personal stories for the upcoming exhibition “Tell Me Your Story About Kryvyi Rih.”
We want to tell the story of the city that is often absent from museums and archives — a living, personal, polyphonic history. A history made up not only of major industrial enterprises, landmark events, or famous names, but also of thousands of individual experiences.
What kind of story are we looking for? Almost any story — as long as, for you, it is a story about Kryvyi Rih.
It could be a story about your courtyard or neighbourhood, your first job at an industrial enterprise, a family tradition, an old photograph, a favourite place that no longer exists, an encounter that changed your life, moving to Kryvyi Rih, or deciding to stay here. It could be about the city as you remember it from childhood. About taking a marshrutka to the other side of the city, Poshtovyi or Sotsmisto, a dacha, garages, a school, a factory or quarry, a pond, a ravine, or a place known only to locals.
It could also be a story about how the city changed after 2014 or 2022: about evacuation and return, finding a new home in Kryvyi Rih, volunteering, military experience, loss, new neighbours, a new job, or an entirely new sense of the city. We are not only interested in extraordinary stories. On the contrary, sometimes it is ordinary memories that tell us the most about the place and time in which we live.
What will happen to your stories?
Through this open call, KRCC will collect at least 40 stories from Kryvyi Rih residents of different ages, professions, and life experiences. Four contemporary Ukrainian artists will work with these materials. Together with the curator, they will explore artistic forms through which these collected voices can be expressed — through photography, video, sound, text, installation, performance, or other media. In this way, personal memories will become the foundation of a large-scale participatory exhibition, “Tell Me Your Story About Kryvyi Rih.”
It is important to us that the exhibition does not attempt to create yet another “correct” version of the city’s history. On the contrary, we want to show Kryvyi Rih through a multitude of different perspectives and experiences.
Because Kryvyi Rih is not only a story of industrialisation and industry. Above all, it is the stories of people who have worked here for generations; those who arrived only recently; veterans and military personnel; internally displaced people; miners and steelworkers; entrepreneurs, teachers, artists, and students; those who love this city and those whose relationship with it is more complicated. The city is changing — and with it, the ways in which we talk about ourselves are changing too. That is why we want to ask you: what is your story about Kryvyi Rih?
Who can take part?
The open call is open to anyone with a personal connection to Kryvyi Rih: current and former residents, people who were born here or moved here, worked or studied here, or spent an important part of their lives in the city.
You do not need to be a writer, researcher, or historian. What matters to us is not literary form, but your experience and your voice.
You can share your story in writing or accompany it with photographs, documents, family archives, audio recordings, or other materials if they help tell your story.

The initiative “Tell Me Your Story About Kryvyi Rih” is implemented as part of the “Re: Kryvyi Rih” project with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.
The Kryvyi Rih Center for Contemporary Culture / KRCC is a civic initiative dedicated to developing culture, art, and the creative industries in Kryvyi Rih. The Center’s mission is to strengthen the city’s cultural potential and create an environment that supports the development of the local cultural and creative community.

Public initiative designed to develop Kryvyi Rih

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Public initiative designed to develop Kryvyi Rih

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