June is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Awareness Month, and this year it is observed under the slogan Not all wounds are visible. A series of educational and artistic events, aimed at raising awareness about PTSD among both military personnel and civilians, as well as fostering new social behavioral norms, will take place in Kyiv. These events are organized by the United Help Ukraine Charitable Foundation and the NGO Ukrainian Higher Medical School, with organizational support from the NGO Buhurt Sich.
The main artistic event in Kyiv will be the EXIT exhibition by Ukrainian artist of Polish descent Alla Ronikier, which will open on June 5 at 17:00 at the Museum of Kyiv History.
Today, the anxiety and distress of Ukrainians have transformed into a collective PTSD—a concept that until recently felt foreign and distant, but has now become, to some extent, part of the lives of most Ukrainians. Painful memories, panic attacks, sleep disturbances, night terrors, sadness, fear, and pain—these have become our present reality.
Scholars around the world are studying the phenomenon of “Ukrainian PTSD” and seeking effective ways to support those affected. One such approach is art, as artists are highly sensitive to the world around them and naturally empathetic. Often, their works even anticipate the future.
This became a kind of premonition in Alla Ronikier’s series of works, in which, several years before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she sensed and depicted the turbulent states of our society after February 24, 2022.
“I couldn’t explain then, and even less so now, what drove me to create these works. It was as if some force compelled me to pick up a palette knife and, employing new means of expression, step by step, construct narratives in which each illustration resembled a film still, embodying the philosophy of the darkness of the human soul under the impact of catastrophe,” says Alla Ronikier, the artist behind the project.
Several years have passed—and unfortunately, her premonitions have come true; these works are now profoundly relevant.
“Today, we can meet many people who went through these events—who had dreams, visions—but the feeling of a deep collective anxiety only grew stronger. Perhaps it was a shared premonition of a terrible future, some force trying to warn us and prevent this horrific reality that now cynically destroys us on a physical level. Yet often we do not realize how this reality quietly, almost ominously, seeps from the body into the soul, leaving invisible wounds—not less profound than physical ones,” says Tetiana Kostenko, curator of the exhibition.
“Art has a secret entrance into our psyche—it conveys understanding of very complex things, even PTSD, through emotional intelligence!” adds Viktor Dosenko, pathophysiologist, geneticist, and director of the NGO ‘Higher Medical School.’
“Today it is crucial to support educational and artistic initiatives aimed at raising public awareness about mental health. Alla Ronikier’s exhibition offers a new perspective; it reminds us what PTSD can look like in the eyes and hearts of people. Art can challenge our perceptions and make us feel uncomfortable. But that is exactly what makes it so important. It allows us to see the situation from another angle and helps us discover new perspectives for meaningful societal change,” emphasizes Oleksandr Visich, Communications Director of the Ukrainian branch of United Help Ukraine.
About the Artist: Alla Ronikier (b. 1961) is an Ukrainian artist of Polish descent. From 1979 to 1984, she studied at Kirovohrad Technical University, specializing as a design engineer. Until March 2022, she lived and worked in Bila Tserkva, where she also founded the Art Gallery Ronikier. She currently lives and works in Poland.
For over 25 years, she has actively participated in various art projects in Ukraine and abroad. Her paintings are held in museums, galleries, and private collections in Ukraine, the USA, France, Switzerland, Germany, Israel, Finland, Estonia, Spain, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.