This is neither utopia nor dystopia, but a map of bodies and a projection of a future already unfolding.

Do human bodies in war appear to you as expendable material, statistics, sites for external medical, military-technical, and ideological experiments? Undeniably. And yet, a tender remainder lingers beneath it all.

The City of Women is a pseudo-documentary art project about the city, where only women remain. Olia’s photography imagines a world where the absence of men is not just a demographic reality but an aesthetic and cognitive state.

They carry historical, muscular, skeletal, hormonal, and other forms of memory.
The bodies of biological men were rendered a resource of war. Femininity, by contrast, operates as a mode of survival — a manipulation of the in-between-post-war world and, at the same time, an excess of meaning.

The bodies in this City are artifacts of transformation: containers, diagnoses, interfaces of the war experience and new forms of community.

This project is still ongoing. We are sharing with you parts of Olia’s work. Therefore, we withhold certain artistic and conceptual aspects of the project.

All images courtesy of Olia Koval, used with permission.

Olia Koval

Born in 2001, Chernihiv, Ukraine

Started photography in 2019.

Graduated the Cinematography Faculty of the Karpenko-Kary.

In 2019 completed the MYPH school from Sergey Melnitchenko 

and the concept photography course from Roman Pyatkovka in 2020.

Member of UAPP and FuturePhotography.

Fresh Eyes winner in the conceptual theme in 2023.

The work “Stone” is kept in the Odesa Fine Art  Museum.

Finalist IWPA in 2024.

Projects:

2019-2020 – Non-violent changes

2021-2022 – Paper flowers on the grey

2022 – Stone

2022 – Memory error

2023 – With love, Koptev

2023-2024 – 12 frames

2024 – Eruption

Personal exhibitions, artist talks and portfolio review:

2020 – “Zelena scena”, series of works “Non-violent changes”, Chernihiv

2021 – Artist talk “Blue room”, Odesa Photo Days

2022 – Artist Talk in Klaipeda, Lithuania

2022 – Artist talk in Šiauliai, Lithuania

2022  – Artist Talk in Utah, USA

2023 – portfolio review at Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland

2024 – personal exhibition project 12 frames in art spase KUT, Kyiv, Ukraine  

Collective exhibitions:

2020-2021 – MYPH Graduantes Online Show, series of works “Non-violent changes”

2021 – evening screening of works “Non-violent changes” in the framework of women’s photography at Odesa Photo Days

2022 –  online exhibition “Non-violent changes” in The Fin Museum of Photography

2022 – charity exhibition of Ukrainian women’s photography in Berlin

2022 –  Apollonia, showing projects “Non-violent changes” and “Body in open space” in Strasbourg, France

2022 –  OstAnders Festival, showing project “Non-violent changes” in Nuremberg, Germany

2022 – Photofestiwal, showing project “Non-violent changes” in Lodz, Poland

2022 – Palse de Tokyo, showing project “Non-violent changes” in Paris, France

2022 – evening screening of works “Non-violent changes” in the framework of Ukrainian photographers in Arles, France.

2022 – group exhibition in Gudimov gallery “Amputated spring” projects  “Stone” and diptych “Flowers on the gray”, Kyiv Ukraine

2022 – group exhibition at SUMA “Reclaiming Agency: Ukrainian Women Photographers Today” project Non-violent changes, Utah State, USA

2022 – group exhibition “For Better or Worse: Crossing the Line” at Walker Art Gallery, Nebraska, USA.

 2022 – group exhibition in Festival of Photography “Rotlicht” – Vienna, Austria.

2022 – Art Fair Budapest showing project “Non-violent changes”, Budapest, Hungary

2022 – group exhibition MYPH in Dymchuk gallery projects  “Non-violent changes”, Kyiv Ukraine

2022 – group exhibition “Foreboding Landscape” showing “Non-violent changes” in Strasbourg, France 

2022 – Zephyr – Wind of changes, exhibited “Stone”, Klaipeda, Lithuania

2023 – music festival Nachasi, exhibited “Blue room”, Kyiv, Ukraine

2023 – group exhibition “Whispers and Shouts. Voices of Ukrainian Women Photographers” in Utrecht, Netherlands

2023 – group exhibition “I Will Be Silent…” exhibited works Memory error in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.

2023 –  group exhibition “New MYPHologies” exhibited works Memory error at Yermilov Center in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

2023 – “If You Stare into the Void for a Long Time” exhibited work Stone at Assortment Room,
Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine.

2023 – group exhibition MYPH in the Sklad exhibited project “Non-violent changes” in Cherkasy, Ukraine

2023 – group exhibition “Experiences of war” in Värmlands Museum, Sweden

2023 – group exhibition Fresh Eyes Talants at Haute Gallery in Amsterdam, Netherlands

2023 – group exhibition “Our years, our words, our losses, our searches, our us” by Jam Factory, Lviv, Ukraine

2024 –  group exhibition “Generation Resilience” at Hangar, Brussels, Belgium

2024 – slide show “Non-violent changes”, “Stone” and “Paper flower on the grey” during the Circulation photo festival in Paris, France

2024 – exhibition of finalists IWPA Tbilisi Art Fair, exhibites “12 frames”, Tbilisi, Georgia 

2024 – group exhibition “introspection.notes” at Ukrainian House, Kyiv, Ukraine

2024 – a group exhibition of finalists  MYPH Photography Prize 2024 competition in Dymchuk Gallery of the “Eruption” project.

2024 – group exhibition “100 women” curated by Hanna Melnyk in Remscheid, Germany

2025 – a group exhibition “Unsaid” work “Stone” in Draft Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine

2025 – a group exhibition of finalists MYPH Photography Prize 2024 competition in Asortymenta kimnata of the “Eruption” project, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine

Publications and interviews:

2020 – online publication Kiosk Democracy

2020 – online publication PHROOM

2022 – published MYPH book 2022

2022 – published in Old School Magazine, Berlin

2023 – published in Austria camera magazine 

2023 – published in Fresh Eyes Magazine

2023 – Jam Factory exhibition katalog Our Years, Our Words, Our Losses, Our Searches, Our Us

2023 – published in Life go on katalog exhibition

2024 – published in CP Conception photography MYPH

2024 – online publication International Women in Photo Association

2024 – interview of my movie With love, Koptev in online media Skvot

2024 – published13 stories of war

2024 -published in Information Front 3.0

Movie festival presentation:

2024 – screening of the film “With Love, Koptev” at the festival SunnyBunny

2024 – Takflix presentation in the selection “Loyalty to Queerness” 

2024 – screening of the film “With Love, Koptev” in London in the selection Young ukrainian directors, 

2024 – screening of the film “With Love, Koptev” in New-York in the selection Young ukrainian directors

2024 – screening of the film “With Love, Koptev” by  SunnyBunny in Porto, Portugal