Hotel Europa

In this artist talk, Ukrainian artist Mark Chehodaiev will present his work since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and reflect on his artistic position and its transformation leading to his most recent project – Hotel Europa.

Since summer 2023, Mark has been exploring locations in Austria that traditionally were part of touristic infrastructure and provided temporary accommodation. Many of these hotels, hostels, or resorts are now offered as shelters to people fleeing the war in Ukraine as well as for refugees from other parts of the world. „My interest is to research how people who lack a secure place to call home, often unable to return, reorganize their temporary environment or adapt to it and adjust their needs accordingly. I capture these places with my camera and document people’s daily life.” The project is supported by the Documenting Ukraine program of the IWM – Institute for Human Sciences.

The event is a cooperation between Office Ukraine and ZeMiT – Zentrum für Migrantinnen und Migranten in Tirol. Together with DAM – Dokumentationsarchiv Migration Tirol, ZeMiT put together an exhibition titled Flucht ist nicht flüchtig, which gives space to the voices of people seeking protection and committed individuals who work with refugees on a professional or voluntary basis. The exhibition was shown in Imst and Wattens in 2024. For this event, parts of the exhibition will be shown at Künstler:innenhaus Büchsenhausen.

Mark Chehodaiev was born in 1997 in Kyiv. He studied scenography and cinematography at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture of Kyiv. In 2019 he graduated from the contemporary art course at Kyiv Academy of Media Arts. Since October 2021, Mark has been studying in the department of Site-specific art at Die Angewandte in Vienna. In 2023, he was awarded with the Young European Artist Trieste Contemporanea Award.
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