UA Days 2026 opens with an avant-premiere limited screening of Underground Garden directed by Yulian Ulybin , a documentary about Aza Nizi Maza, an art studio founded in Kharkiv.
At the centre of the film are children who continue to draw, imagine, and create while living under constant shelling. Through their voices, the audience encounters the lived reality behind the works – a world where creativity stands against danger, fear, and disruption.
Aza Nizi Maza brings together children and teenagers who work collectively on large-scale artistic projects. One of the studio’s most significant works was created in 2022 in the Kharkiv metro, where families were sheltering during intense shelling.
The evening begins with a short opening and a live online connection with the children in Kharkiv, followed by the film screening.
An outdoor exhibition of works by the young artists of Aza Nizi Maza will be on view on the fence of the Czech Embassy from 23 May to 23 July. These works were created in real conditions of war. They also make visible another reality: that war is directed not only against territory and lives, but against culture itself.
