Solomiya magazine announces new Berlin festival Solomiya Studio
Artist-run independent magazine Solomiya (‘soлomiya’) has announced their brand new festival Solomiya Studio. To be held at KVOST in Berlin, Germany between 5th of February to the 19th of February 2025, the new initiative aims to shed light on the dynamic and distinctive mix of discourses that Solomiya is known for. There will be a full festival programme announced soon and will include an exclusive festival library with a curated selection of books and magazines on sale.
Solomiya magazine was founded in April 2022 as a “collaboration between artists from Kyiv and Berlin in response to Russia’s war against Ukraine,” the shop Do You Read Me?! notes. “It aims to promote the visibility of common democratic and European values that people from Ukraine and other European countries share. As a platform for self-expression of young creatives from Ukraine, soлomiya is an itinerant group exhibition and an art object at the same time, that belongs only to its creators.”
The 100-page issue four of Solomiya was released in January 2025. Labelled as ‘The Environmental Issue’, the team describe it as the first “monothematic issue” from them. Its publisher Shift Books writes, “[issue four] brings together a collection of artists and researchers reflecting and advocating on behalf of Ukraine’s more-than-human communities and ecologies. In collaboration with the Ukrainian Environmental Humanities Network (UEHN)—an international collective of curators, artists, and scholars—we’ve created an issue that celebrates the richness and complexity of Ukrainian landscapes. This issue offers a diverse range of perspectives, amplifying voices that challenge the colonial, imperial, and extractive narratives that have long shaped external perceptions of Ukraine’s environment.”
The new Solomiya Studio festival aims to celebrate the launch of the new issue whilst offering a collective starting point for issue five. They had previously held a pop-up in Berlin back in 2022, which we covered here. The new festival aims to “address contemporary concerns” amongst other themes, they note on their Instagram. Solomiya Studio looks to dive into weapon semantics, peace agreements, wilted flowers and into simplified landscapes. “[The festival will serve] as a space for critical reflection and mutual interest, addressing contemporary concerns, cultural transformations, and the role of art in times of war. Through a diverse program of performances, installations, panel discussions, and publishing projects, Solomiya Studio tackles urgent questions surrounding various forms of violence. Ranging from colonial violence and ecocide to the fragility of peace agreements and the rise of far-right extremism in Germany, power relations and their misuse are discussed, departing from Russia’s ongoing military invasion of Ukraine.”
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You can visit the Solomiya Studio website here to find out more about the festival and how to visit. The full programme will be released on the 15th of January. There will be books and magazines on sale at the event but if you wish to purchase issue four prior to the event, the online webshop can be accessed here.
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