We continue our journey at SETAREH gallery with the profound world of Ukrainian artist Masha Kovtun. The artist, who lives and works in Prague, presents her solo exhibition titled “Hidden Among Days”, offering a quiet yet shattering meditation on migration, belonging, and the loss of the concept of home.
The exhibition, which will run until 17 April 2026, tells the story of an individual’s struggle to find a place of their own in today’s rapidly ageing and increasingly uncertain world, through the language of painting.
The Migration Experience: Both Here and Elsewhere
Masha Kovtun’s practice draws nourishment from the unique search for identity that comes with living as a migrant in Prague. For her, home is not merely a physical space; it is a broad concept where nostalgia and melancholy intersect, and where privacy and security are sometimes felt as a form of loss.
Between Two Worlds: Kovtun visualises the experience of being both inside and outside. Her paintings capture the strange contradiction felt by a migrant — the simultaneous feeling of peace and displacement.
The Integrity of Emotions: It is impossible to attribute a single emotion — only melancholy or only peace — to these paintings. Their nuance lies in the holistic experience of being both lost and found at the same time, of continuing on the path even when a door closes.
Hazy Views and the Dramaturgy of Light
Kovtun’s canvases stand on that fine line between reality and imagination, remembering and continuity. A distinct haziness dominates the artist’s technical choices:
Light and Darkness: In some paintings, a warm beam of light gives way to suffocating darkness. This contrast creates an atmosphere of constant discovery and shifting moods.
Windows and Boundaries: The artist uses windows as a framing device. Windows act as barriers separating the inner and outer worlds; these two worlds only merge through atmosphere and light. This method grounds her paintings not in a distortion of reality, but in the construction of reality.
Loss and Continuity: Highlighted Works from the Exhibition
Kovtun’s works never fully detach from reality; the relationship between figures and their surroundings always remains grounded:
Theatre of the War (2022) & Podbaba (2023): The undeniable shadow left by a bird in flight mirrors the unease created by a helicopter suspended in the sky.
The Sound of Falling Stars (2023): Light seeps through a slightly open door and falls onto yellow flowers in an empty room. In this slightly blurred image, the flowers appear strangely at home despite being in a dusty and empty space.
Hope and Uncertainty
The exhibition also evokes different faces of hope: the warm brightness of hope against uncertainty, and the hope that wavers and fades against changing times… Kovtun makes visible and palpable the fleeting moments that shape the rhythm of everyday life and our sense of belonging.
If you want to feel the world, light, and the weight of the word “home” through a migrant’s eyes:
Dates: Until 17 April 2026
Venue: SETAREH, Berlin
City: Berlin, Germany
