War through the Eyes of Children: 26 Pairs of Shoes Tell the Stories of the Journey from Ukraine to Czechia

Photo and text: Slovo 21 website

They only had a few minutes to take the essentials with them.  At the end of February 2022, they set off into the unknown, often taking just clothes and shoes. Today, two and a half years later, the young refugees and their shoes tell the stories of the sudden departure from their home in Ukraine and arrival in the Czech Republic. Their life stories are portrayed in the exhibition Journey / Traces of Stories (Cesta / Stopy příběhů). The exhibition opening will take place on 21^st January at the Artivist Lab at Kampus Hybernská Campus and it will be open for public from 22^nd January to 20^th March 2025.

The exhibition tells the stories of 26 Ukrainian children through 26 pairs of shoes they brought with them on their journey to the Czech Republic. Each pair is accompanied by a text and an authentic audio recording of the child’s narration, giving visitors a glimpse into their fates. And why does the exhibition revolve around shoes? They are a symbol of a journey to a new home and they remind us of the difficulties and challenges the children and their families had to face.

Prague’s Artivist Lab is not the only place where visitors will be able to see the exhibition Journey / Traces of Stories in 2025. During spring and summer, the exhibition will open in Zlín and Brno and in autumn it will end its journey in Teplice. Interestingly, in each of the cities the exhibition will be taken care of by another curator. The Prague part is in charge of Tamara Moyzes, artist, curator and documentary filmmaker. In her work, Moyzes tackles topics such as the status of minorities, xenophobia and racism. At each of the exhibition places you can also watch a short film made by Ukrainian students of UMPRUM and the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Iryna Babanina and Anna Solianyk.

The exhibition is a part of the We Are Not Strangers project 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 aims to strengthen the empathy of Czechs towards the fate of Ukrainian refugee children. The beginning of the war is depicted through children’s eyes here which makes the exhibition unique. Each pair of shoes on display takes on a deeply personal and emotional dimension that speaks to the hearts of visitors.

This article was created within the We Are Not Strangers project which is co-financed by the European Union and the Prague City Hall.