Katya Buchatska
Katya Buchatska is a multidisciplinary artist. She studied Graphic Techniques and Illustration at the Institute of NTUU KPI, Kyiv, Ukraine (2003-2007); Fine Art at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Art de Dijon, Dijon, France (2008), and Monumental Painting with Professor Mykola Storozhenko at the National Academy of Fine Art and Architecture, Kyiv, Ukraine (2008-2015). She collaborates with the preservation group for the legacy of the Hutsul naïve artist Paraska Plytka-Horytsvit. Since 2016 she has worked with people with autism spectrum disorders in the art studio Workshop of Possibilities. In 2024 she presented the Best Wishes project in the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 60th International Venice Biennale together with 15 neurodivergent artists.
Time for Me
2025
Zine, digital print
When creating an archive, one never knows how perceptions of it will change over time. What will it be missing? What mistakes or inaccuracies will appear — ones you might later regret? Katya Buchatska’s work invites us to revisit the archive and observe its transformation — depending on the circumstances and the moment from which we are looking at it.
In this piece, the artist uses three ‘completed’ archives — those of British photographer Franki Raffles, Pokrovsk photo correspondent Mykola Bilokon, and her own, created in Pokrovsk in 2018. For Buchatska, a ‘completed’ archive is one that, for various reasons, can no longer be expanded — one that has shifted from being a living entity and is now a time capsule.
By weaving these materials into a single visual narrative, the artist reflects on the limits of personal vision: what can photographs created in different historical contexts tell us, and how do they resonate with our present sense of reality? At the same time, it is an attempt to distance oneself — to contemplate the gaps and absences that any archive inevitably contains.
Another part of the work invites visitors to create a collective visual story based on their own family archives and memories. Anyone who wishes can bring family photographs, make photocopies, and add them to a zine with blank pages. The photographs may be accompanied by comments and personal reflections.
Layout: Katya Buchatska
Print Preparation: Olena Misiura