Karina Synytsia

HOW
ARE           YOU?Exhibition And Discussion. 
Inaugural project 
by the Ukrainian Museum 
of Contemporary Art (Umca),
 
founded by the Ngo "Museum 
of Contemporary Art," 

in collaboration with the Memory Culture Platform Past / Future / Art and 
the National Center Ukrainian House, 2023.

Ukrainian House, Kyiv, Ukraine.



Curatorial Team:

Yehor Antsyhin, 
Olha Balashova, 
Halyna Hleba, 
Yuliia Karpets,
Anna-mariia Kucherenko, 
Katia Libkind, 
Tetiana Lysun,
Oleksandr Soloviov, 
and time as the Chief Curator For a long time after the full-scale invasion began, the phrase that encapsulated the entire spectrum of anxiety, care, and hope was simply: "How are you?" Over time, language—both verbal and visual—gained new meanings and semantics, striving to embody the new reality in artistic forms. At the core of this exhibition is the "Art Archive of Martial Law" of the Ukrainian Museum of Contemporary Art (UMCA), which began forming on February 24, 2022, and will continue until the day of our victory. Archiving has become one of the few available ways to observe the artistic process during the war. "How Are You?", featuring nearly 100 Ukrainian artists, is the first attempt to share the results of these observations.

The chronological principle of the Archive and its contents influenced the exhibition's concept. Thus, the project's main curator is "Time" itself, whose subjective experience will be recreated in the Ukrainian House by the curatorial team.

Recognizing the necessity of temporal distance for reflection, the project team values the urgency of this exhibition now—while the full-scale war continues, yet we have already learned to live with it. The project's goal is to reflect on Ukrainians' experiences during Russia's full-scale invasion and take a step toward shaping a shared vision of the future.
Photo: Yevgen Nikiforov 
"Germination", 2022
paper, acrylic
"Scorched earth—from the series Ultra naivety", 2022
acrylic, paint on paper
"Home absence—from the series Ultra naivety", 2022
acrylic, paint on paper
Photo: Yevgen Nikiforov 
2026 © Karina Synytsia. All rights reserved.
Design & Layout: Denys-Kamyl Levadny