About
In early 2025, we launched Discovery Guide, a project designed to promote Ukrainian cultural heritage through collaboration between artists and residents. The initiative is led by Sineglossa in partnership with Fundacja Ziemniaki i and Territory NGO, and is co-funded by Creative Europe. As part of the project, Bakota Hub hosted six artists from September 1–14: Anna Romandash, Olena Kayinska, Camille Bleu-Valentin, ARSÈNE, Robin Alysha Clemens, and Bohdana Korohod (selected via an international open call that drew more than 240 applications).
The residency was preceded by a July training in Warsaw on the Nontourism methodology—a participatory process developed by Sineglossa to co-create place-based storytelling. Artists learned strategies and tools to engage local communities and surface stories, identities, and anecdotes, while also getting to know one another, study reference projects, and meet the partners.
During the residency, the artists explored the Bakota region, met with local communities, and collected ideas and materials to develop a non-conventional travel guide. Inspired by the Sarajevo Survival Guide and the Nonturismo series, the guide aims to both promote the territory and strengthen residents’ sense of belonging.
How the residency unfolded
Places visited
The first stop was the Bakotskyi Mikhailovsky Cave Monastery on the Dniester River, within Podilski Tovtry National Nature Park. Founded between the 12th and 13th centuries and steeped in local legend, its caves are partly accessible thanks to restorations carried out in the last century.
In the following days, the exploration continued in Stara Ušytsia (formerly Ushytsia), a village in the Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Kamianets-Podilskyi Raion. A meeting with the local community was also held here, organized by the partner Bakota Hub at the herbal store “Perlyny Bakota – Prudyvusiv Herbalist,” a business dedicated to cultivating medicinal herbs with its own production of teas, aromatic blends, and liqueurs made from herbs and berries. During the visit, amidst the aromas of dried herbs and flowers and explanations of the production process, the owner described some aspects of the Podilski Tovtry area, an ecologically clean region that allows for the collection of organic raw materials and the creation of unique compositions of spices and herbs.
During the meeting with the community, each artist briefly introduced themselves and their research within the framework of the Discovery Guide project. The event featured contributions from Mykola Prudyvus, founder of the local herbal shop, and a representative from the cultural department of the local ATC, who presented Alina Oliynyk with a diploma and a medal in recognition of her significant contribution to the development of the community and the region. Around 30 people attended the event, which included a banquet featuring local herbal and berry liqueurs, fragrant teas, and other regional specialties. The artists took photographs, conducted interviews, exchanged contacts, and arranged further meetings with the residents.
The schedule also left room for independent research. One such outing led to the discovery of an illegal tobacco-drying facility in an abandoned factory (tobacco cultivation is common across the Kamianets-Podilskyi area).
Historically, Stara Ushytsia is where most residents of Bakota resettled after 1981, when the original settlement was flooded during the construction of the Dniester hydroelectric power plant. The oldest part of the village was submerged; the settlement was evacuated and rebuilt higher up the hill, while Bakota remained as a bay now visited by tourists. In recent years, several cultural initiatives have emerged to protect and highlight this displaced heritage.
Another field visit focused on archaeological excavations in the Khmelnytskyi region, which had drawn local media attention for the discovery of a Rus’-era child burial (first half of the 13th century) near a viewpoint not far from the cave monastery.
In Chabanivka, the artists in residence visited the Village History Museum, which has been active for over 31 years. The museum narrates the history of the village (founded in the mid-16th century by a shepherd, from whom it takes its name) within the Staroushytska territorial community and is housed in the House of Culture. The director, Nadiya Galatyr, explained that this is the only village history museum in the region. Founded in 1990 by Headmaster Vasyl Romarnyuk, the entrance features murals by Kamianets-Podilskyi artist Volodymyr Loško, dedicated to the village’s founding, the Tatar attacks, the legend of the maiden’s tears and the fern flower (on Kupala Night), as well as religious holidays.
Finally, on the last day, during an excursion in search of a well-known “magic man” (one of the artists, Olena, will realize her itinerary along the esoteric places of Bakota), the group met three geologists—Ihor Bubniak, Lev Horodyskyj, and Andriy Bubniak—in Kitaygorod, with whom the outing turned into a genuine geotourism excursion. They searched for fossils such as ammonites and the highly sought-after trilobites, observed Late Miocene (8–12 million years), Cretaceous, Silurian, and finally Cambrian (approximately 530 million years) outcrops, visited spectacular sites – such as the brick Catholic Church of the Virgin Mary, built in 1776 on the site of an older wooden church, now managed by the order of the Pauline Fathers and incredibly imposing in a village of about 200 people –, and walked an ancient road with majestic stone columns by their side, at least 200-250 years old, which in the past ensured the road’s safety (each column has a large hole where sturdy wooden beams were inserted, so that carts and carriages would not fall into the ravine in the dark).
Community meetings
Beyond field trips, the residency offered many ways to connect with residents and local opinion leaders. The artists visited storyteller Mykola “BETA”, gathered photographs and documentary materials, and spent time with the Vyshemirsky family (Ihor and Valentyna), who hosted the group overnight and shared stories and albums. Another family, first met at the community gathering, prepared vareniki, gifted hand-woven scarves, and opened a large photo archive curated by Blazhey Vasyl Danylovych, showing the area before the flooding, during the village’s destruction, and afterward with the construction of New Stara Ushytsia.
Partners also convened public meetings where residents shared family photos and memories of the region before and after the flood. Children – the focus of Robin’s project – had space to contribute, too. A festival at the Gorayivka village club featured music, traditional dress, food, crafts, and performances by the folk singing theater Pisenne Lezhyvo (Rozmay Center for Culture and Arts) and the local vocal group Dnistryanochka.
A further opportunity for meeting arose spontaneously in Chabanivka, after visiting the local traditions museum, with a shared lunch during which the artists collected songs, took pictures on the stage of the House of Culture, dialogued with the guests, and deepened their understanding of the local atmosphere.
Across these three meetings, the artists met about 130 people. ARSÈNE set up an “intimate table” with questionnaires and prompts regarding places of comfort and sadness; inviting participants to draw or map personal geographies. Attendees ranged from older adults to children, tourists, people working in tourism and public services, and internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Artists’ experience
During the residency: Camille advanced her research into ecoplastics of varying densities, shapes, colors, flavors, textures, and contents; Robin created collages and, with Bohdana, digitized local photo albums; ARSÈNE surveyed landscapes; Olena researched fortune tellers, portals, and rituals; Anna focused on writing and interviews; and Beatrice recorded interviews and a podcast while participating in meetings and solo work sessions. Evenings were reserved for sharing daily results. The week closed with a group check-in on “how the day went,” and—after the first week—an online exchange with partners who were not on site to discuss progress and feedback.
