Solomiya, No.2

Since October 2022, the editors Ivanna Kozachenko, Andrii Ushytskyi, Vsevolod Kazarin and Sebastian Wells as well as the art direction around Anne-Lene Proff and Peter Bünnagel from Kollektiv Scrollan and the Berlin-based publishing house SHIFT BOOKS have been working on a second issue of the magazine. The 132-page edition contains works by talented and already well-known Ukrainian artists from the fields of photography and graphics as well as texts on photography, film, contemporary art, literature and, above all, the everyday life of young people in Ukraine, which attempt to make the complex reality of life in the constant sights of the Russian aggressors comprehensible. The new issue focuses in particular on the stories of people from the now-occupied territories in Luhansk, Donetsk and Crimea, who have already been facing the war since 2014. The cover of the new issue was designed exclusively for Soлomiya by the renowned artist Alevtina Kakhidze. It shows a woman surrounded by missiles and drones, raising her hand. ‘Our hands have become more skilful during the war,’ says Kakhidze, who has already created hundreds of drawings during the war and has drawn a tardigrade on the back of the booklet – the only living creature to survive the nuclear accident in Chernobyl. »This magazine, created in Kyiv and designed in Berlin, is a testament to resistance through the means of art«, the editors say. GOLD award in the category Editorial Design – Magazin des ADC (Art Directors Club) Design Award 2024

Jury comment:

» … With multiple perspectives and the highest level of design, they make the reader understand what it means to have to live with the constant deadly threat. With their photographic observations, subjective image experiments, hand-drawn illustrations and sensitive texts, the creators offer unadulterated insights that allow us to share in their individual experiences. The jury is more than impressed by the creative energy that stands up against this still ongoing brutal war, which is slowly threatening to lose media interest. The attention caravan moves on. Solomiya stays.«