Anhelina L Starkova explains how her experience of living through the Ukraine war has shaped her approach to curating the 2024 Tallinn Architecture Biennale in this interview.
Starkova, who was chief curator of this year's biennale, is from Kharkiv in north-east Ukraine ? a city that has suffered heavy bombardment since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022, coming close to being captured early on in the conflict.
According to the curator, she experienced something close to an epiphany not long after the war began, while taking refuge in the bunker in her house as bombs fell around it
Anhelina L Starkova is chief curator of this year's Tallinn Architecture Biennale. Photo by Helen Shets
"I remember that planes were flying around, and the building was shaking, and it was really the moment when you understand that it's probably your last minutes," she recalled. "I was standing with this wall, and I was thinking that this wall was a continuation of my body ? this is me," she continued.
"It was, for an architect, [a] very interesting feeling. Because I finished university, I had my 10 years in practice, and I still was not really immersed in architecture."
"You always think it intellectually, but when I was in this bunker I started [to] think, 'oh my god, this is the only one thing that can really save me ? this wall is the only one thing that I need'. It was a very existential experience."
Titled "Resources for a Future&quo...