War through the eyes of children: 26 pairs of shoes tell the story of the journey from Ukraine to the Czech Republic

They had only a few minutes to pack the bare essentials. Often, it was just the clothes and shoes they were wearing when they set off into the unknown at the end of February 2022. Today, two and a half years later, these young refugees and their shoes tell the story of their sudden departure from home in Ukraine and their arrival in the Czech Republic. Their journeys are brought to life in the exhibition The Journey / Traces of Stories, which will open on January 21 at the Artivist Lab in Kampus Hybernská. The exhibition will be open to the public from January 22 to March 20, 2025.

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The exhibition presents the stories of 26 Ukrainian children through 26 pairs of shoesthat they brought with them on their journey to the Czech Republic. Each pair is accompanied by text and audio featuring authentic recordings of the children's stories, offering visitors a glimpse into their experiences.

And why shoes? They are a symbol of the journey toward a new home and serve as a reminder of the hardships and challenges that the children and their families had to face.

The Prague Artivist Lab will not be the only place where The Journey / Traces of Stories exhibition will appear in 2025. During the spring and summer, it will travel to Zlín and Brno, and in the autumn, the exhibition will conclude its own journey in Teplice. Interestingly, the exhibition will be curated by a different person in each city. The Prague portion of the exhibition will be overseen by artist, curator, and documentarian Tamara Moyzes, whose work focuses on topics such as the status of minorities, xenophobia, and racism. Each exhibition will also include a short film created by Ukrainian students from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague and the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Iryna Babanina and Anna Solianyk.

The exhibition is part of the project We Are Not Strangers, which aims to bring foreigners and the majority society closer together through objective and impartial information. The project seeks to break down stereotypes and dispel myths that often surround people of other nationalities living in the Czech Republic.

The exhibition itself focuses on fostering empathy among Czechs for the experiences of Ukrainian refugee children.

Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it captures the beginning of the war through the eyes of a child. As a result, each pair of shoes on display takes on a deeply personal and emotional dimension that will touch the hearts of visitors.

This article was produced as part of the We Are Not Strangers project, which is co-funded by the European Union and the Prague City Hall.