Waves of Creativity: Announcing the participants of the 2026 international residency program

We received 41 applications for the open call to participate in the Waves of Creativity residency.

The selection process was carried out jointly by four institutions: Odesa Photo Days (Ukraine) drew up a longlist, followed by a discussion between the partners – OKAPI NPO (Estonia), Haihatus Art Center and Residency (Finland) and Kunstverein Wagenhalle (Germany) – who then finalised the list of participants.

Congratulations to the nine nominees who will spend four and a half months in Estonia, Finland and Germany:

• Oleg Pereverzev
• Valentyn Kuzan
• Ievgeniia Kupchan
• Olesia Saienko
• Elena Subach
• Olia Koval
• Mykyta Bezus
• Iryna Klachek
• Alina Prisich

Among those selected is Oxana Chorna, a military officer, who will join the OKAPI residency in Estonia for two weeks.

During the residency, they will have the opportunity to develop their own photography project and dive into the local contexts of the host countries. The curating partners will present an exhibition showcasing the program results in Estonia in autumn 2026. All participants will receive €4,500 for the entire duration of their stay.

The programme is being implemented by OKAPI NPO (Estonia), Haihatus Art Center and Residency (Finland) and Kunstverein Wagenhalle (Germany) in collaboration with Odesa Photo Days (Ukraine).

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.