EKKM Reads with Vlada Vazheyevskyy

EKKM Reads is an informal reading group. Together with an invited artist, thinker, or researcher, participants have the opportunity to slowly experience and interpret texts selected by the facilitator. The “blind date” format means that participants do not need to familiarize themselves with the texts beforehand – they are read and discussed on the spot.

Three EKKM Reads sessions will take place as part of the We Have a Land of Words exhibition.

On October 22 at 18:00 EKKM Reads will be led by Ukrainian researcher Vlada Vazheyevskyy.

Vlada Vazheyevskyy is a Visiting Doctoral Researcher at the Estonian Academy of Arts for the 2026/7 academic year. Their current work deals with Ukrainian (forced) migration to Estonia and memorialisation of forced labour in the Ida-Viruma region. Vlada is a part of the artist-researcher collective Occupational Formations which documents the (in)visible infrastructures facilitating the Russian occupation of Ukraine. Their collective project Occupational Formations: Infrastructures of the Seen and Unseen is currently being prepared to be shown at the upcoming Transmediale.

In the EKKM Reads session, Vlada Vazheyevskyy will facilitate a discussion on the processes of destruction and reconstruction which are taking place at different speeds across occupied Mariupol and Gaza. Through a slow, collective reading of excerpts chosen from texts, they wish to trace connections between the Russian war on and occupation of Ukraine and the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

EKKM Reads series this season are part of public program of the exhibition We Have a Land of Words. It supports and expands upon the stories and experiences presented in the exhibition through events that bring the exhibition’s themes closer to us and connect them to the local context. Co-curated by Anita Kodanik and Sanna Kartau, the program brings together collective imagination and poetic resistance through reading evenings, gatherings, film screenings, and conversations in collaboration with various artists, researchers, and institutions, extending the discussion beyond the museum's walls.