"You have come to our land? Why, the f*ck, have you come? You have come to our land. Put the seeds in your pockets so that when they put you in the ground sunflowers will grow," a bold Genichesk resident told the Russian occupiers. Yulia Krivich's photographs show an action in a gesture of solidarity with Ukraine carried out in the streets of Warsaw, which involved planting sunflower seeds on lawns, flower beds, in public spaces, near embassies and in major squares. Activists  wrote: "We think of this as a global action of solidarity with Ukraine and our fight for freedom and peace in Europe! We think of it as an act of defiance. May all cities in the world be sown with sunflowers by the end of spring!". The action shows the important contemporary street dimension of organised anti-war protest.

Yulia Krivich

Yulia Krivich is a Ukrainian visual artist working with photography, installation and public space. Her explorations mainly focus on the notion of identity and the interweaving of documentation with creation, personal and political concepts. Starting with her diploma project My World Is Not Where I Am (2013) about young people from Ukraine, she explores the problems of young generations living in post-Soviet areas. Another chapter of her work Presentiment (2014) was published in the form of a photo book as part of Krakow Month of Photography (2015). She is a graduate of Architecture at the Prydniprovsia State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture in Dnipro (2010) and the Faculty of Media Art at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts (2013). She was a recipient of the Gaude Polonia Scholarship Program (2016) and a participant of the Pla(t)form at the Fotomuseum in Winterthur, Switzerland (2018) . She has been awarded the ShowOFF (Month of Photography in Krakow, 2015) and Projekt Przetwórnia (Krakow, 2015), among others. She currently works in Warsaw.