Urgent Conversations: Athens – Antwerp

Since 2014, when Donbas and Crimea were occupied by Russia, Alevtina Kakhidze changed her focus from criticising the society of consumption to resistance and art activism, addressing issues of trauma, contested memory, displacement and violence. Her critical writings, drawings and performances are a direct indictment of the degrading conditions of living in the occupied and oppressed border regions. Kakhidze publishes a visual diary on Instagram, depicting her everyday experiences and thoughts on military aggression since Russia escalated its preparations for war in the beginning of 2022. The remarkable thing about her practice is the way in which she, as a small and insignificant individual, armed only with markers, pencil and paper, enters into the struggle with the overwhelming war. The drawings are sometimes sharp, sometimes childishly naive, but above all distressing and anything but playful.