HOME IS WHERE I AM

This exhibition of photographs, taken by young people from Ukraine and Belarus, is the offshoot of an August workshop in the New Home Project programme, aimed at teenagers with an experience of migration and refugeeism.

Photographers Julia Szablovska from Belarus and Julia Oginska from Ukraine found their own way through photography in Poland, which is now their new home. They decided to share their experiences by inviting young people from Ukraine and Belarus to participate in a photography workshop in the New Home Project. This project combines photography and art therapy and aims to help children and young people from Belarus and Ukraine who have been forced to emigrate, as well as aiding them through the trauma and experience of leaving their homeland. Photography workshops for teenagers with migration and refugee experiences have been organised in several cities in Poland; in August 2023, they were also held at Sixt's Villa in Bielsko-Biała. The classes were conducted in Polish, as well as Ukrainian and Belarusian.

Participants learned the basics of the history of photography and analogue techniques. They also learned how to create their own photographic story using the method of intuitive photography and the principles of storytelling.

The curator of the project is Julia Szabłowska; the coordinator is Julia Oginska.
The organiser of the workshop in Bielsko-Biała and the exhibition is the Bielska Galeria BWA.
Partners of the New Home Project are the Sława and Izek Wołosiański Humanosh Foundation and the Conflict Kitchen Foundation.


Julia Szabłowska – Belarusian documentary photographer, journalist, head of the photography department at the only independent Belarusian TV channel Belsat, originator of the "New Home" project.

Julia Oginska was born in 1995 in Zhytomyr, Ukraine. She graduated from the Ivan Ogenko College of Culture and Arts in Zhytomyr (2015) and from the National University of Culture and Arts in Kiev, majoring in Film and Television Arts (2019). The artist lives in Bielsko-Biała; she has been working as an educator at Galeria Bielska BWA since July 2022.


Galeria Bielska BWA, Willa Sixta, ul. Adama Mickiewicza 24, the Kateryna Bilokur community centre
“Home is where I am”.
Photo exhibition by participants of the New Home Project workshop
24 November 2023 - 24 February 2024
Opening: Friday, 24 November, 6.30 p.m.
Curator: Julia Szabłowska; coordinator: Julia Oginska