Opening exhibition: Saturday April 25th 2026 at 4 PM in Het Oude Raadhuis, Dorpsstraat 9, Aalsmeer
To be visited: until Sunday June 7th 2026, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday 2 PM – 5 PM
State of Temporality brings together Ukrainian and Dutch artists whose works reflect on displacement caused by war, from the perspectives of those who flee and those who receive, witness, and live alongside displaced people.
At the centre of the exhibition is the personal story of curator Mariana Dzhulai,, whose family fled Russia’s war against Ukraine. Through works in different media, this intimate experience opens onto a shared reality lived by millions forced to leave home in search of safety.
The exhibition reflects on trauma, empathy, loss, and adaptation. It asks what remains when familiar structures collapse, how one continues to live under the pressure of war, and whether safety can ever feel complete again, even after years in peaceful Europe.
At the same time, State of Temporality insists that the Ukrainian experience should not be seen only through victimhood. It also speaks through resilience, knowledge, and the capacity to endure. The world has changed, and war is no longer a distant exception. The language of permanent peace no longer fully describes the present. Adaptation today may also mean preparedness, protection, and collective defence.
In this sense, the experience of Ukrainians becomes not only a testimony of loss but also a source of knowledge. The exhibition invites European audiences to empathise, but also to consider what they might learn from those who have already been forced to live through war.
The works in the exhibition do not offer resolution. Instead, they attend to vulnerability, endurance, and the effort of remaining oneself in unfamiliar worlds. They speak to the challenge of preserving identity and memory while negotiating new cultural environments, and to the possibility of post-traumatic growth without reducing the reality of loss.
The opening of State of Temporality will be on Saturday April 25, 4.00 PM. The exhibition can be visited until Sunday June 7, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday 2 PM to 5 PM at Het Oude Raadhuis, Dorpsstraat 9 in Aalsmeer.
Participating artists
EtchingRoom1, graphic art
Marieke Greeve, object
Hanna Hrabarska, photography, book
Anna Kakhiani, photography
Alevtyna Kakhidze, drawing
Mariia Kulikovska, watercolor, sculpture
Ilse Oelbers, sculpture
Marfa Vasilieva, photography, video
Cover photo: art work by Anna Kakhiani – After The Storm (Regading the pain of others)
Curated by Mariana Dzhulai, Block A Gallery, Kyiv, Amsterdam
