Women Who Hold the World
Project
Active 1 month ago
Group Leadership
- Project initiator
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This project explores the lives of Ukrainian women who, as a result of war, have found themselves carrying the responsibility of raising children alone. Some have lost their husbands. Others live with the uncertainty of a partner serving at the front. Many have been separated from their families by forced migration, displacement, or military service.
The project seeks to reveal the invisible weight carried by these women. It is a story about resilience, but also about exhaustion. About strength, but also about vulnerability. About women who are expected to remain a source of safety, stability, and hope for their children while they themselves struggle with grief, loneliness, financial insecurity, fear, and uncertainty.
At the center of the project are ten in-depth interviews with women from different regions and backgrounds. Through conversations, participants will share their experiences of motherhood, loss, survival, responsibility, and hope during wartime. Their stories will form the foundation for a series of visual artworks.
The artistic component will consist of ten large-scale drawings created using charcoal and gold. Charcoal symbolizes destruction, fragility, absence, and the traces left by war. Gold represents resilience, dignity, and the invisible strength that allows these women to continue moving forward despite immense challenges.
Inspired by the image of the caryatid — a female figure carrying the weight of a structure — the women portrayed in this series become contemporary caryatids. They hold together families, homes, memories, and futures. Though often exhausted and emotionally fractured, they continue to create spaces of safety and belonging for their children.
The project aims not only to document individual stories but also to create a collective portrait of a generation of women whose labor, sacrifice, and resilience remain largely unseen. Through the combination of testimony and visual art, the project invites viewers to reflect on care, responsibility, motherhood, and the hidden costs of war.
Ultimately, Women Who Hold the World is a project about survival, love, and the extraordinary strength required to remain a source of light for others while carrying one’s own darkness.
Project info
This project explores the lives of Ukrainian women who, as a result of war, have found themselves carrying the responsibility of raising children alone. Some have lost their husbands. Others live with the uncertainty of a partner serving at the front. Many have been separated from their families by forced migration, displacement, or military service.
The project seeks to reveal the invisible weight carried by these women. It is a story about resilience, but also about exhaustion. About strength, but also about vulnerability. About women who are expected to remain a source of safety, stability, and hope for their children while they themselves struggle with grief, loneliness, financial insecurity, fear, and uncertainty.
At the center of the project are ten in-depth interviews with women from different regions and backgrounds. Through conversations, participants will share their experiences of motherhood, loss, survival, responsibility, and hope during wartime. Their stories will form the foundation for a series of visual artworks.
The artistic component will consist of ten large-scale drawings created using charcoal and gold. Charcoal symbolizes destruction, fragility, absence, and the traces left by war. Gold represents resilience, dignity, and the invisible strength that allows these women to continue moving forward despite immense challenges.
Inspired by the image of the caryatid — a female figure carrying the weight of a structure — the women portrayed in this series become contemporary caryatids. They hold together families, homes, memories, and futures. Though often exhausted and emotionally fractured, they continue to create spaces of safety and belonging for their children.
The project aims not only to document individual stories but also to create a collective portrait of a generation of women whose labor, sacrifice, and resilience remain largely unseen. Through the combination of testimony and visual art, the project invites viewers to reflect on care, responsibility, motherhood, and the hidden costs of war.
Ultimately, Women Who Hold the World is a project about survival, love, and the extraordinary strength required to remain a source of light for others while carrying one’s own darkness.
