Echoes of Unity opens in Trieste: when art becomes threshold, memory, and resistance.

The first event of Echoes of Unity came to life in Trieste with an intense, well-attended, and deeply felt vernissage. Over fifty people moved together through a space that was not only an exhibition, but also an emotional and political one: a place of listening, memory, and transformation.

Echoes of Unity was born from the encounter between art, experience, and crossing. The exhibition brings together the works of Ukrainian artists forced to leave their country because of the war and now living in various European contexts. Their works build a collective narrative made up of fragments, evolving identities, and daily resistance.

The common thread throughout the entire journey is liminality: that threshold state, of “in-between,” between loss and possibility, trauma and reconstruction. A fragile but fertile space, where art becomes care, a political gesture, and an opening towards new forms of existence.

A project taking shape

The vernissage opened with a speech by Agnese Berton, president of the Mimma Dreams association, who spoke about the work of the previous months: from the construction of the project to the setting up of the exhibition space.

Next, the curator Jan Van Woensel, unable to be present, still wanted to share a message in which he explained how the theme of liminality emerged from the dialogue with the artists, intertwining almost symbolically with his own theoretical research on the concept of threshold.

Between informal moments and exchanges with the audience, the local curator Lina Maria Palumbo then guided those present through the exhibition, explaining the meaning of the works and the curatorial choices, constructed as a true experiential journey.

The path: an exhibition to be experienced, not just viewed

As also emerges from the curatorial project, Echoes of Unity is conceived as a sequence of symbolic thresholds, in which each work dialogues with the next

The entrance welcomes the public with Kristina Mos's cyanotypes: a fragile archive that immediately introduces the theme of unstable memory, made up of images that emerge and disappear, like places that are no longer accessible.

Immediately after, the two bas-reliefs by Tetiana Nyshchun function as a true physical and symbolic threshold: the body becomes a mirror and a fracture, a place of exposure and vulnerability.

The path continues with the works of Susanna Mikla and Vitaliia Kalmutska, which open a dialogue between roots, guardianship, and collective memory, intertwining painting and sculptural material in a layering that speaks of cultural resistance.

At the center of the space, the textile installation by Nataliya Teslenko constructs a visible and fragile threshold: the embroidered silk becomes a border, a sensitive surface, a place of continuous exposure.

In the niche, the large canvas by Aia Kora: here the body is no longer in tension, but in listening, a presence that inhabits the space instead of occupying it.

Following are the work of Ellaya Yefymova, which focuses on the theme of the invisible bond, and the sculptures of Vik Shpetna: two presences that introduce weight, gravity, and physical instability, making the precariousness of identity three-dimensional.

The path closes with P.S. by Vlada Lobus: a table with 92 envelopes containing photographs taken by the artist but never seen by herself. A process-work that transforms the exit into a time to be crossed rather than a simple ending. There is no dominant image, but a duration: days that flow, accumulate, resist.

As the curatorial concept states, Echoes of Unity does not mend what has been broken: it makes it visible, inhabitable

A European project that speaks to the present

The exhibition is part of Echoes of Unity, a European project co-financed by the Creative Europe program, involving artists and cultural organizations in Italy, Poland, Greece, and Portugal. An initiative that places at its center the role of art as a space for collective processing of trauma and as a tool for intercultural dialogue.

A project of which we are deeply proud.

Acknowledgements

A special thanks to the artists and the curator of the exhibition:

Jan Van Woensel (curator)

Vlada Lobus, Kristina Mos, Aia Kora, Susanna Mikla, Tetiana Nyshchun, Nataliya Teslenko, Vitaliia Kalmutska, Vik Shpetna, Ellaya Yefymova

A special thank you to Susanna Mikla, Nataliya Teslenko and Vlada Lobus, present at the vernissage, for guiding the public in discovering their artistic vision and their experiences.

Thanks also to:

Nunzia Amirante (project design and Vice-President Mimma Dreams)

Agnese Berton (coordination)

Simona (co-organization)

Ishtar (graphics)

Lina Maria Palumbo and Mimma Dreams, project partners.