Exhibition "Presences"

Museum of Personal Collections named after Bleschunov, Odesa | UA

April 18 - June 8, 2025

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In Presences, Sofiia Holubeva investigates the nature of connection,  time, and memory through the lens of sisterhood under conditions of war and separation. The project reflects on forms of presence - physical, emotional, and imagined - that sustain bonds across distance, time, and circumstance.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the artist has seen her sisters far less often. Distance, living in different countries, and the constant threat of danger have catalyzed a deeper rethinking of intimacy. Her paintings capture not only moments of being together, but also the reverberations of contact, inscribed in the memory of the body.

The exhibition brings together two series:

Leap - an observation of the younger sister at the moment of a free dive into water, a gesture embodying childhood lightness and carefreeness. A jump into the pool during an air raid in Odesa becomes a statement of life.

Connection - painting, text, and sound form a field of memory around the experience of fusion, separation, and deep trust with her twin sister.

Together, these works create a personal topology of closeness - a choreography of gestures and movements where the body becomes the bearer of connection. They unfold as a cartography of presence, in which painting operates as an emotional archive, and art itself becomes a space of resistance to forgetting.

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