The Journey / Traces of Stories exhibition begins in the Bata Principle exhibition in Zlín. Children fleeing the war in Ukraine share their stories.
They had only a few minutes to pack their essentials and leave their homes. The exhibition Journey / Traces of Stories, which opens on April 29, 2025, at 4:00 PM at the Museum of Southeast Moravia in Zlín, shares the stories of Ukrainian children fleeing the war through 26 pairs of authentic shoes and excerpts from their personal accounts. This unique exhibition, which aims primarily to bring the experiences of Ukrainian refugee children closer to the Czech public, is organized by the Slovo 21 association and the Museum of Southeast Moravia in Zlín.
"We have been using the exhibition space for several years now," says Silvie Lečíková from the museum's commercial department.
"We select themes that have a deeper dimension and offer visitors a striking contrast to the content of the permanent exhibition. This exhibition uniquely intertwines the theme of shoes—which is inextricably linked to Zlín and Bata—with raw stories that none of us would ever want to experience."
The central motif of the exhibition is 26 pairs of shoes in which children arrived in the Czech Republic. Each pair is accompanied by a text featuring a transcript of an authentic story told by a child. The children's shoes symbolize the journey to a new home and serve as a reminder of the hardships and challenges that these children and their families had to face. The opening will also feature a screening of a short film in which the creators—Ukrainian UMPRUM students Anna Solianyk and Iryna Babanina—bring their own personal experiences of leaving home and adapting to a foreign environment into the project.
The exhibition will be on display at the Zlín museum from April 29 to June 2, 2025. The museum, located in the 14|15 Bata Institute, will not be the only place where the Journey / Traces of Stories exhibition appears in 2025. Its first stop took place in Prague at the beginning of January. After Zlín, it will move to Brno during the summer, and in the autumn, the exhibition will conclude its journey in Teplice, with a different curator preparing the display in each city.
The exhibition is part of a project by the organization Slovo 21 titled "We Are Not Strangers," which aims to bring foreigners and the majority society closer together through objective and impartial information.
"It is incredibly important to us that Czech society has the opportunity to learn who these refugees are, how they live here, and what connects us. It will then be much easier to bridge the gap filled with stereotypes that arises precisely because we do not know each other," explains Jelena Silajdžić, director of Slovo 21.
The Zlín exhibition is also being organized with the support of the non-profit organization Hometown, which has been helping Ukrainian refugees in Zlín since the start of the Russian aggression in Ukraine in 2022.
The exhibition is co-financed by the European Union from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF).
Contact person:
Marie-Anna Růžičková, Slovo 21, z.s.
732 268 201
marie.ruzickova@slovo21.cz
