Thickets, Groves, Woods and Bushes (UKR: Хащі, Рощі, Зарощі і Кущі) is an apartment exhibition in Kyiv curated by Oleksandra Pogrebnyak. The exhibition will open on the first anniversary of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine. February 24th, which today unites the histories of many people and has become a symbol of national resistance, used to be a private moment for Oleksandra, for whom this date is also her birthday. Thickets, Groves, Woods and Bushes is about the experience of staying in Ukraine despite changing circumstances, about liberated territories that have become landscapes of trauma and destruction, about gestures and actions that can restore one’s sense of control and belonging, and attempts to reclaim more-than-human environments of coexistence. The exhibition takes its title from an unfinished poem by Dmytro Chepurnyi, which reflects his expectations of returning to his native city, Luhansk. It considers environments and landscapes that form in the absence of humans; abandoned houses and abandoned gardens, places where everyday life became impossible due to military occupation. Unable to leave, plants remain active in these spaces, sprouting through cracks in the floor, clinging to building facades, and reaching towards the sun. Thickets cover houses, but also battlefields, representing nature’s capacity for renewal. Inspired by this ecological rejuvenation, this exhibition invites Ukrainian and international artists to tell stories of the poetics of life and space, the anxiety caused by an undefined future, and the resistance that has become an integral part of one’s life in Ukraine.