Since the start of the large-scale invasion over 11 million Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes: move abroad or change their place of residence inside the country. Such Ukrainians have become IDPs – internally displaced persons.
However, this is not the first experience like that for a large number of Ukrainians.
For the first time, millions of Ukrainians were forced to leave their homes in 2014 after the start of the invasion and occupation of Crimea and part of Eastern Ukraine by Russia. And they had to do that for the second time in February of 2022 after the start of the large-scale war. As of 2021 official statistics showed at least 1,5 million IDPs registered in Ukraine.
However, this is not the first experience like that for a large number of Ukrainians.
For the first time, millions of Ukrainians were forced to leave their homes in 2014 after the start of the invasion and occupation of Crimea and part of Eastern Ukraine by Russia. And they had to do that for the second time in February of 2022 after the start of the large-scale war. As of 2021 official statistics showed at least 1,5 million IDPs registered in Ukraine.
Their number has significantly increased since February 24. This art-book is a collection of graphic interviews about the experience of people yanked out by the war from their homes, work, their own lives for the second time.
IDP – Again Internally Displaced Person. We started working on this project in the spring of 2022, with the three of us being in Western Ukraine, having left Kyiv during heavy shelling. Ania and Zhenia became IDPs for the first time, while Mariia originally coming from Kramatorsk became an IDP for the second time. We thought about the importance of reminding that thousands of people had lived under the same roof with the war since 2014. This book is about the experience of saying goodbye to your home, and it is full of sentimental, yet bitter humor.
This book is full of memories of people which constitute our daily life: neighbors and classmates, shopkeepers and university professors. It is about us and about communities into which we get inevitably integrated – so tightly that when they suddenly pack their belongings and leave, we cannot not even realize at once which part of our life we have lost – whether it is something minor and routine
or rather our own indigenousness, foundation on which we have been growing up.
The project has been implemented with the support of ARTIF Program.