vasylysa.art

To Heal

To Heal is a multi-part urbanistic intervention that I realized in my hometown of Kharkiv in the summer of 2023, with the desire to heal the wounds caused by Russian aggression. A single sheet of cardboard allowed me to produce four band-aids. Three of them were placed in the urban space, while the fourth became a gift to the local artistic community formed in 2022 by the younger generation of artists who remained in the city. All the artworks were mounted on the water-based glue from Siverskodonetsk (Luhansk region), whose weatherproof capabilities could be questioned, but I decided to just give it a try. Below you will find the follow-up stories of each band-aid.

TO HEAL Vol. 01
TO HEAL Vol. 02
TO HEAL Vol. 03

This artwork turned out to have the longest longevity. Maybe, due to its placement on a quiet side street. The top layer of the cardboard, along with the heart-shaped foil, was mysteriously lost, but the shape of the band-aid can still be found here.

Few hours after placing this work I found an addition to it, which made me smile. The messenger connected the symbol of bandaid with the title of the street adding articles of constitution next to the work. I was excitied to see how someone felt compeled to co-create, and as an architect, I thought to myself: it’s cool that someone claims their right to the city!

This band-aid was placed on the façade of the local business with the intention of supporting the worker, who, at the owner’s request, was fixing the storefront after it was defaced with the word “occupant” or “occupier”, which refers to the aggressor. A few years later, the storefront was fixed with a fresh layer of paint, leaving the band-aid behind it. Photo: Viktoriia Grivina

The photo-documentation of this work was included in the catalogue „The Beauty of Care“ of the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 18th Biennale Architettura in Venice.
In July 2025, the photo of the wall was exhibited at the Feldfünf in Berlin-Kreuzberg. In the frame of the exhibition Women in Architecture, it became a physical element of architecture from Ukraine.
In August 2025, the photo of the wall in Berlin returned to its original location, accompanied by the background story and the QR-Code which asks passers-by to share their feelings about standing next to the wall that was in Berlin and made it back.
Shot with OA few months later, the work was covered with a layer of paint. One can see that there was an unsuccessful attempt to remove the band-aid (the water-based glue is strong in the end). My guess is that this was done with the intention of calming down the street writings of a politically provocative nature that started to appear in this corner.
In January of 2024, the photo-documentation of this work, along with the “to heal.vol 01” was exhibited in the window of Kunstquartier Bethanien in Berlin-Kreuzberg.
A month later, I brought the image from this show to its original location, bridging the physical spaces of Berlin and Kharkiv. For Christmas 2024, the window was covered with the PVC foil with Christmas print, while the wooden fence was replaced with a metal one with the children’s exhibition mounted on it.
The photo of this work, along with a few other images, is part of the poster that is hanging at the faculty of Anthropology in St. Andrew’s University (Scotland), where my friend, colleague, and fellow Kharkiv’yanka, Viktoriia Grivina, is writing her PhD (this text is written on 03.11.2025)
FEATURED IN
2024 Before the Future —Ukrainian Pavilion at the 18th Biennale Architettura in Venice, catalogue by ist-publishing
2025 Kharkiv is a dream. Public Art and Activism 2013 – 2023 by Hjørdis Clemmensen, Viktoriia Grivina, Vasylysa Shchogoleva

EXHIBITED AT

2024 POLY:LUX, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin

2025 Women in Architecture (WIA) Festival, Feldfünf, Berlin