Ukrainian Artist Residency at Milan's Fabbrica del Vapore Concludes with 'HOW YOU DARE?' Exhibition

The Rolling Refugee Home Museum On Wheels residency, launched in May 2022 at Milan's Fabbrica del Vapore by curator Sergey Kantsedal, concluded with the exhibition 'HOW YOU DARE?'. The year-long program hosted Ukrainian artists Alina Kleytman, Katya Kopeikina, and Vladislav Plisetskiy, who explored the body, its sociocultural codifications, and political implications amid war. The residency transformed former cisterns into a hybrid community space for spontaneous events and performances, introducing Italian audiences to Ukrainian art figures like the Kvirtet Collective and BOJI. The exhibition's title responds to critics who deemed the artists apolitical, asserting that war first strips control over one's body. Kleytman's video 'The Four Revenges of Queen Olga' reenacts the myth of Queen Olga, blending victim and perpetrator narratives to address female empowerment. The residency included an open studio 'Nail of Destiny' in December 2022, collaborating with 'Una Sauna' by Nobody's Indiscipline, reflecting on nail care as identity and sauna as queer cruising and regeneration space. Kleytman's sculptures address loss, paranoia, and reconstruction, emphasizing that destruction is part of a larger creative process.