Behind the Craft: A New Place for Craft in Contemporary Culture

On September 4, as part of Ukrainian Fashion Week SS27, the exhibition Behind the Craft opened, exploring Ukrainian craftsmanship and its contemporary reinterpretation. The exhibition brings together more than 70 looks by Ukrainian fashion brands and objects of contemporary design, alongside the stories of the craftspeople whose knowledge, experience, and hands are behind their creation.

Behind the Craft is curated by Maria Havryliuk and Natalia Kamenska, Co-Founders and Creative Directors of GUNIA Project. In developing the exhibition, they focused on the ways Ukrainian designers today return to traditional techniques and craft knowledge, integrating them into contemporary fashion and object design.

“Selecting the works for the exhibition turned out to be one of the most challenging stages of the process. We spent a long time carefully researching who is working with craft in Ukrainian fashion and design today — and discovered that there are far more brands and artisans doing this than we initially imagined. This is precisely the tendency we wanted to capture: craft is no longer a niche or exclusively ethnographic practice. It has become a natural language of contemporary design,” says Maria Havryliuk.

The exhibition features ARTEMKLIMCHUK, ASSHA, BASNY RUGS, BOBKOVA, FROLOV, GASANOVA, GORN CERAMICS, GUCULIYA DECOR, GUNIA Project, GUSHKA, ii, J’AMEMME, KARAVAY, KHRYSTYNA RACHYTSKA, KSENIASCHNAIDER, MAKHNO, MAPICO, MY THEATRE by Dariia Bila, NADIIA, OMELIA, PODYH, POUSTOVIT, SIDLETSKIY, the COAT by Katya Silchenko, TONiA, VANDRA RUGS, VOZIANOV, and YAKUSH.

Behind the Craft captures a transformation currently taking place within Ukrainian culture: craft is moving beyond a purely ethnographic context to become an integral part of contemporary fashion, design, architecture, and art. Traditional techniques are not simply being preserved — they are being reinterpreted, becoming the foundation for new forms, objects, and visual languages.

“We have shown only a selection of the brands, and we are proud that there are so many of them. That alone answers the question of whether such a movement exists in Ukraine: it does, and it is much broader than it might appear at first glance. For us, Behind the Craft is not a final statement, but an invitation to a conversation about how craft moves from the category of ‘heritage’ into that of ‘contemporary culture’. As curators, we want to be among those who begin this conversation out loud,” says Natalia Kamenska.

The Hands Behind the WorkA special focus of Behind the Craft is placed on the people and professional knowledge behind the finished objects.

“While the Hands Are Remembered” is a documentary series by media outlet Frontliner, dedicated to the hands reviving Ukrainian crafts and bringing cultural memory back into everyday life. It presents ten stories of people working to preserve the connection between generations.

The collaboration with Frontliner allows visitors to look beyond the finished object and discover the people, skills, and countless hours of work that shape contemporary Ukrainian design.

This perspective takes on particular significance when viewed against the history of Ukrainian craftsmanship. After decades in which Soviet industrialisation systematically displaced manual labour and devalued traditional craft knowledge, craftsmanship is now reclaiming its cultural, symbolic, and economic value.

Techniques preserved and passed down through generations, often in spite of the system, are being given new life — becoming part of contemporary fashion and design.

The exhibition is supported by Work.ua, a job-search service in Ukraine. The partnership expands the conversation around craft, inviting audiences to view it not only as cultural heritage, but also as a living professional ecosystem — one that creates jobs, passes knowledge between generations, and establishes a new value for skilled manual work in Ukraine.

Behind the Craft marks the beginning of an important conversation about the place of craft in contemporary Ukrainian culture — its potential, the people preserving and developing craft knowledge, and the future of craftsmanship as an essential part of contemporary design.