This series was created in 2023, during a period of profound personal crisis marked by the effects of war, the loss of her home, and a fractured sense of identity. For a long time, these works remained hidden: they were too personal and too painful. They were a visual diary made in silence, not intended for display, but for survival.
With time, however, came the realisation that honest exposure of one’s inner state can create connections. War is not only the ruins of cities shown on newscasts; it is also inner ruins, the silent aftermath invisible to others. This exhibition is an attempt to find a path toward restoration.
Viktoria Berezina’s collages emerge from a state of inner collapse, at a moment when reflection becomes unfamiliar and each day begins with the question: who am I now? It is the story of someone who has lived through war. Their world vanished in an instant, leaving behind only silence, cracks and the question of how to go on.
There is no linear narrative here, only fragments: flashes of memory, texture and layers. Collage is not just a technique; it is a metaphor for existence, an attempt to reassemble the self from broken parts. It is never seamless, never whole, but always real.
The artist turns to the image of a wall on a city street, a surface where the past never fully disappears. Posters, graffiti and the residue of time all coexist. Memory works similarly: it is layered, distorted and fractured. And yet, this chaos becomes the foundation of identity.
The yellow that breaks through these compositions is not sunlight; it is embers after a fire. It does not warm, but it keeps the cold at bay. It is resistance and a small act of faith.
Viktoria Berezina (b. 1994, Kherson, Ukraine) is an artist, graphic designer and curator. Since October 2022, she has been living and working in Tartu, Estonia. She studied at the Kherson Art School and the Design Lyceum, and graduated with honours in 2017 from the Faculty of Design at the Kherson National Technical University.
In 2022, she was awarded the Kultuuri Tegu prize for outstanding contributions to culture, for her courage in documenting the war and curating the Ukrainian–Estonian exhibition Päästik / Trigger / Тригер. In 2023, her project Viktoria’s Letters was nominated for the Tartu Culture Bearers 2022 award in the “Event of the Year” category. In 2024, she became a member of the Tartu Artists’ Union.
