“Urban Herstories” is a collaborative art initiative that will document the social, political and urban changes in Zenica, Ivano-Frankivsk, Košice and Wrocław from the 1960s onwards through a female perspective. The project collects personal stories of elderly women related to specific mapped locations in the city, upon which the so-called “Women’s city map” will be created. The stories will be part of a city audio guide, documentary film and photographic projects created by artists from BiH, Ukraine, Slovakia and Poland.

The project officially began in 2020, when the group of Zenica’s elderly women embarked on discovering the often invisible, female perspective on the city through joint walks around the city center and discussions about their personal memories of mapped locations in downtown Zenica. This supports the efforts of women around the world to become more visible in the public arena and to discuss the position of women, especially those of third age. Also, the project opens the space for introducing unknown but significant women’s experiences into the city’s history.

The project is a joint project of Naš most Association from Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Insha Osvita from Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, Kino Usmev from Košice,Slovakia and Strefa Kultury Wroclaw from Wroclaw, Poland. The partner on the project isZenica’s Naša djeca Association.

It is implemented within the framework of the Tandem Ukraine Programme. Tandem Ukraine is an initiative developed by MitOst e.V. and European Cultural Foundation (ECF). The programme is implemented in close collaboration with Insha Osvita, and is supported by theGerman Federal Foreign Office in the framework of “Dialogue for Change”, as well as ECFand Black Sea Trust, a Project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.