Debaltsevo, where are you?

A personal story about the fascinating and elusive search for your heritage, Versluis explores her family history in the Donbas, Ukraine.

Debaltsevo, Where Are You? is a personal story about the fascinating and elusive search for your heritage. Karine Zenja Versluis (NL) started her own quest when she decided to explore her family history in the city of Debaltseve, Donbas, Ukraine. The place where her grandmother was born (Debaltsevo in her grandmother’s memories).

Everything went differently than expected, symbolizing the puzzling search for her own identity. A story told from different perspectives. We follow the history of her grandmother, we get to know three Ukrainian families and we travel with the narrator herself, in search of a city. 

The work consists of archival images, photographs and texts in English, with an online available Dutch and Ukrainian translation.