“Trails Through the Yard”

About Project

The war has altered familiar routes, forcing many people to leave their homes and rethink their connection to place. At the same time, memories of familiar landscapes, childhood walks, favorite paths, and special places continue to shape our sense of home and belonging.

“Trails Through the Yard” is an art and community program dedicated to exploring landscapes of memory, personal routes, and the ways in which we build connections with places and people. Together with the artists, participants will explore urban and natural spaces, revisit memories of childhood places, share their own stories, and seek new ways to interact with the landscape through artistic practices.

The program includes a series of meetings, walks, conversations, and creative activities, in which the process of collaborative exploration itself is key. Together with the artists, we will create art from natural materials, draw, and recall the paths, places, plants, and landscapes that accompany us through life.

Team

The program will be led by artists Valeria Agafonova, Lada Verbina, and Emma Peno, Bohdan Volynskyi.
The project curator – Olena Kasperovich.
The project manager – Iryna Klyuchnyk.

About residents

Lada Verbina is an artist from Kyiv. She earned her master’s degree from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture.
The artist primarily works in painting and graphic art, incorporating object-based practices. Her artistic practice focuses on the local mythology of Podillia, a sense of belonging to a place, and self-expression within it.
Lada also works specifically with the symbol and physical presence of bread.
Her works have been exhibited at the PinchukArtCentre (Kyiv, Ukraine), the Ukrainian House (Kyiv, Ukraine), thesteinstudio (Kyiv, Ukraine), depot 12_59 (Kyiv, Ukraine), 91 Galerie (Frankfurt, Germany), the Milvus Artistic Research Center (Knislinge, Sweden), and elsewhere.
Related to her research on Podillia is the maintenance of a family tree whose roots are centered in the region.
The artist’s maternal family descends from the Polish petty nobility, primarily from what is now the Kamianets-Podilskyi district.
Lada is also actively involved in teaching art to children at private and public institutions, studios, and through her own individual workshops.

Valeria Agafonova and Bohdan Volynskyi are architects from Kharkiv, tutors for student workshops, and instructors at the “dash!” children’s architecture school. They are involved in alternative architectural education and explore the intersection of art and architecture in the realm of participatory and performative practices. They view architecture as an open process of co-creation that brings together space and human relationships.
Since 2022, Valeria has been living in Lviv, while Bohdan has joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Emma Penot is an architect and researcher, graduated from the National School of Architecture and Landscape of Bordeaux (ENSAPBx) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Her practice brings together architecture, local resources, and collective action through projects at the intersection of art, education, and community engagement. Working with natural and regenerative materials such as earth, wood, and straw, she explores their potential to foster social cohesion and community resilience. Emma has developed projects in Ukraine, including the Children’s Resistance Pavilion and frontline “Ptahahata” Bio-sourced resting space in a frontline refugee camp, Vinnytsia, where she implemented participatory building practices with children, internally displaced people, and local communities. Through her work, she creates spaces of co-creation that strengthen cultural memory, a sense of belonging, and collective resilience.

Program duration:

July 8 – August 23, 2026.
Wednesday – 5:00 PM–8:30 PM;
Sunday – 12:00 PM–4:00 PM.

Place:
Jam Factory Art Center, AIR Space
124 Bohdan Khmelnytskyi St., Lviv.