In autumn, Kristina Kapeljuh undertook a residency in České Budějovice, developing a carefully composed project that connected personal stories, collective memory and questions of identity shaped by the idea of home. Over the course of the residency, Kapeljuh developed methods of working with plants, scents and subtle sensory stimuli, which became both a medium through which members of the local Ukrainian community could share their stories and a tool for fostering understanding across generations and cultures. The creative process created a space where traditions preserved in memory encountered the need to establish roots in a new environment, while collaborative work naturally encouraged dialogue, belonging and shared imagination.
Organised in collaboration with Budweis European Capital of Culture 2028, the residency built on Kapeljuh’s long-term artistic practice, which explores the sensory layers of human experience. Her work examines transformation, movement and fluidity, tracing connections between the material world, time and form. Combining printmaking, drawing and digital media, she bridges different modes of expression. In her community-oriented practice, she works with both adults and children, for whom printmaking offers a playful and participatory way of creating and exploring together.
From the outset, it was clear that Kapeljuh would collaborate closely with the Nadija community, made up of Ukrainian families living in České Budějovice. The Ukrainian diaspora – already present in the city before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine – has since grown significantly. Many families tend to socialise primarily within their own community and may experience social isolation, yet they actively preserve their cultural traditions as vital markers of home and heritage. While most no longer plan to return to Ukraine, they seek to pass these traditions on to their children and to share them with the local community in order to sustain their cultural identity.
The initial meeting with the Nadija community became the starting point of the residency. During this gathering, participants shared stories, memories and needs, emphasising the importance of preserving and transmitting cultural traditions. In response, Kapeljuh gradually developed methods of working with plants, scents and sensory stimuli that allowed participants to express personal and collective memory in a sensitive, participatory manner. This process fostered dialogue across generations and cultures, promoted mutual understanding, strengthened community bonds, and reflected broader cultural and political contexts.
Kapeljuh integrated approaches involving scent, touch, texture and the visual traces of plants, seeing them as parallels to the layered nature of memory and to the natural environments from which participants’ recollections often emerge. Plants functioned as a universal language, bridging cultural differences and linguistic barriers. Their colours, scents and forms evoked memories of home, family, landscapes or rituals with deep personal significance. Working with scent, in particular, provided a subtle means of approaching topics that might otherwise be difficult or too sensitive to articulate.
The central creative element of the project was a simple plant-based printmaking technique – jelly printing – which required no prior artistic experience or specialised tools. Participants coated leaves and flowers with acrylic paint and transferred them onto paper, producing prints that captured the structure, shape and fine imperfections of the plants. Plant selection was often intuitive, guided by scent, memory or associations with home and family traditions. Each print carried a personal story, and through collective work these gradually formed a visual map of memory. The overlapping layers of prints echoed the workings of memory itself – intersecting, rich and embedded in time.
As the project involved families and children, Kapeljuh worked with two primary groups: members of the Nadija community and their children, and pupils from Nová Primary School, whose student body includes primarily Czech-, Vietnamese- and Ukrainian-speaking children. The school brings together approximately 400 pupils from diverse international communities, including Roma, Vietnamese and Ukrainian students. The project thus created a space for intercultural encounters that rarely take place in everyday life. Collaborative creation allowed children to get to know one another not only through formal education, but through shared creative experience.
Family workshops were held at weekends, while sessions with schoolchildren took place during the week. The first phase of the residency focused on workshops with Nadija community volunteers and teachers, aimed at mapping the social environment, sharing expectations and exploring how these could be creatively developed in subsequent activities. This was followed by a series of workshops centred on jelly printing as the main artistic technique. Throughout the process, different perspectives naturally converged: children approached creation playfully and intuitively, while adults shared stories of relocation, family traditions, memories of home and everyday life in a new country.
Each artwork was scanned to create a digital archive, which was returned to its creators at the end of the residency. Drawing on interviews, storytelling and visual material, an authorial zine was produced, combining plant prints with fragments of participants’ narratives. This modest publication captures themes of home, identity and tradition in layered forms that visually and conceptually complement one another.
The residency culminated in a community gathering and one-day exhibition on 13 October at the Žižkárna cultural and creative space in České Budějovice. Traditional Ukrainian dishes were served, and a children’s choir performed folk songs. The zine was freely available to visitors, and participants brought their works to the event.
Kapeljuh’s residency thus intertwined personal narratives, collective memory and questions of home and identity through multisensory work with plants, scents and textures, which functioned as a shared language across cultural and linguistic boundaries. The project created a space for exchange within the Nadija community and enabled children from Nová Primary School and other groups to create together, discover new forms of understanding through artistic experience, and engage in intercultural dialogue.
The residency also provided visibility for the community and introduced a form of dialogue on integration rooted in artistic practice, extending beyond administrative or social frameworks. As such, the project became both an artistic and a communal gesture – fostering understanding, belonging and openness within the local context, and culminating in a shared exhibition and community event.
Kristina Kapeljuh has extensive experience working with communities, including Ukrainian ones. In her community-based practice, she frequently draws on her core artistic methods, including drawing, printmaking, zine-making and other forms of publishing, murals and poster interventions. Her collaborative approach is particularly evident in her work with children, where printmaking becomes a playful, participatory medium combining text and image.
Originally from Ukraine – having lived in Ukraine, Hungary and various parts of Europe – Kapeljuh is now based in Vienna, Austria. She holds a Master’s degree in Visual Communication from the Royal College of Art (UK), studied Illustration at Edinburgh College of Art (UK), and was an exchange student at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Switzerland). She has participated in residencies in Ukraine, Austria, Slovenia and Iceland, and most recently worked as a printmaking teacher and artist-in-residence at bilding – School of Art and Architecture for Children and Young People in Innsbruck.
Artist: Kristina Kapeljuh
Curator: Alena Kotyza
Text: Alena Kotyza
Photography: Alena Kotyza, Tereza Silon, Libor Staněk, Aneta Vernerová
Project Manager: Anna Davis
Participation and Communities: Lucie Boušková
Production: Iva Jedličková
Special thanks: the Nadija community; the pupils, teachers, headteacher and staff of Nová Primary School.
The project was created as part of a residency in collaboration with Budweis European Capital of Culture 2028 and the European platform Magic Carpets.
Curatorial text by Alena Kotyza