Diary of Kateryna Savenko from Mariupol to be heard at the 83rd Venice Film Festival
25.08.2026
The diary of Kateryna Savenko, preserved in the Museum of Civilian Voices founded by the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, has become part of the immersive installation Memories by Ukrainian artist Sofiia Bulakova. The project will be presented at the 83rd Venice Film Festival within the Venice Immersive programme.
Memories has entered the jubilee 10th Venice Immersive programme – among 68 immersive works from 26 countries worldwide. The installation explores personal and collective memory of the war through voices, sounds, and personal testimonies.
For the festival presentation, the installation was supplemented with an audio version of Kateryna Savenko’s diary. It was voiced by actress Dariia Tvoronovych.
“For the Museum of Civilian Voices it is important to preserve testimonies and give them the opportunity to be heard far beyond Ukraine. The integration of the diary into Memories allows Kateryna’s voice to sound in the international space. Her personal testimony becomes part of the memory of what Ukrainians have lived through during the war,” says Nataliia Yemchenko, Chair of the Supervisory Board of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation.
For Ukrainian artist Sofiia Bulhakova, Memories is a polyphonic experience arising from personal and collective testimonies of the years of full-scale war in the form of sound artefacts collected by Sofiia. It is embodied in an installation created from metres of insulation pipes.
“By opening one channel at a time and layering sounds through the pipes, viewers immerse themselves in a non-linear narrative woven from my intimate experiences. To this polyphony now joins the voice of Kateryna Savenko, recorded in her diary from Mariupol,” explains project author Sofiia Bulhakova.
Mariupol resident Kateryna Savenko began keeping her diary on the first day of the full-scale invasion, recording the life of the city, her own experiences, and the struggle for survival. Before her death she asked her sister to find the notes and tell the world the truth about Mariupol. Now her diary will become part of an international art project about memory, the experience of war, and the power of human testimony, which audiences from all over the world will be able to hear.
The Museum of Civilian Voices founded by the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation is a partner of the project and the largest archive in the world of testimonies about russia’s war against Ukraine. It preserves more than 145 thousand stories of civilians affected by the war. More about Kateryna Savenko’s Diary – via the link.
