Oleksandr Stoianov, Ukrainian visual artist, photographer and video maker, will work on a documentary based on the testimonies and archives of people in exile awaiting refugee status. Oleksandr Stoianov is an active member of the association Atelier des Artistes en Exil. In his video and photographic work, he has focused on the gulags, the hijacking of Soviet propaganda, and the legacy of post-Soviet society. 

“My work is often at the intersection of artistic and activist practices. I often work with archive material and found footage. For me, the archive is not only a piece of the past, but also of the present. Through historical material I try to look into the modern tangle of life. It is difficult for an artist to change political reality, but I believe in the power of culture.

I want to make a project about what refugees remember about their former lives, how they keep important memories. They can be traumatic or, on the contrary, pleasant. The project is based on mobile photography and video. I want to meet people who are in the process of getting refugee status. I will ask them to share with me a photo and video that is stored in the memory of their mobile phone and to tell the story associated with these images. Images should tell the story of their home, the place they had to leave. It could be a photo and video taken at a critical time in their life. Or maybe it is just a memory of people, an event or a place. I am in the process of becoming a refugee myself. I have so many memories of my homeland. They are scary, sad, happy. I want to give people the opportunity to express themselves, to talk about what is really important to them. Some refugees arrive in Europe without a phone, in which case I want to ask them to find an important photo or video related to memories of their home country on the Internet. I want to record interviews with these people on audio. And eventually make a documentary/experimental film based on these images and interviews.”

Oleksandr Stoianov

This residency, organised in collaboration with the Association des Centres Culturels de Rencontres and the Cité du Mot, is supported by the Nora programme, which helps refugee artists from countries in open conflict.