The Bleshchunov Museum in Odesa presented a graphic novel about the war at a festival in Sarajevo

On July 30, an Art-talk titled “Odessa at the WARM Festival 2026” was held in Odessa, dedicated to the participation of the O. V. Bleshchunov Odessa Museum of Private Collections in the international festival in Sarajevo. 

An Intenta photojournalist attended the event.

This year, the 12th WARM Festival took place from July 6 to 12, focusing on understanding contemporary military conflicts, preserving memory, and countering disinformation. The event brought together war correspondents, documentary filmmakers, human rights activists, and artists from around the world.

<picture></picture>The Bleshchunov Museum presented a short story at the festival in Sarajevo/Photo: Intent

The Odesa Municipal Museum of Personal Collections named after O. V. Bleshchunov was represented at the festival by Maria Apryatova, head of the exhibition department, illustrator, and graduate of the WARM Academy 2026. 

“Today I want to share my experience of participating in the festival, explain how it works, and talk about what museum cats have to do with it and how they ended up at such an international event. It’s a very interesting story,” said Apryatova.

According to the artist, she traveled to the WARM Festival to present the graphic novel “Odessa: A Museum Diary of the War.” A selection of illustrations from this project was included in the official festival zine.

“Our graphic novel is documentary in nature, but at the same time features artistic illustrations. Currently, nothing similar is being created about Ukraine in this format,” the illustrator noted.

As the artist noted, the festival typically brings together journalists, documentary filmmakers, writers, and photographers who are documenting the war.

<picture></picture>Photo: Intent

Apryatova explained that the museum was invited to contribute to the festival zine—a limited-edition publication featuring illustrations and photographs. 

Part of this story was written by an Italian curator, because he saw universal humanity and a connection to ancient Greek myths in the illustrations for our novella. And it was incredible, because now it’s not just about Ukrainian cats, but a true Odyssey of Odessa’s cats. And we are very grateful that such an event took place,” she concluded.

In April, in an interview with Intent, the acting director and chief curatorof the museum,Olena IlyasovaBleshchunova, spoke about the institution’s transformation, international projects, the digitization of the collection, and why it’s important for today’s visitors not only to look but also to speak up. 

Ірина Глухова