From October 8 to 27, 2026, the “Bucha Blackboard” exhibition will take place in Barcelona, featuring an actual school blackboard from Bucha as its central exhibit.

After the city was liberated, 12-year-old Ivan used chalk to write on it about what he witnessed during the Russian occupation, the organizers said. This was reported by LB.ua.

The exhibition will be presented by the Centro Cultural Ucraniano (CCU), with the support of the Ajuntament de Barcelona, at the CC Parc Sandaru cultural center. The exhibition is curated by Kateryna Pidhaina.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is a 210 × 105 cm school blackboard that survived the Russian occupation of Bucha.

After the city was liberated, 12-year-old Ivan wrote in chalk on the blackboard about what he had witnessed during the occupation: how Russian soldiers took over his school, fired on Irpin from there, and killed people in Bucha.

The blackboard was taken out of Ukraine by American journalist, documentary filmmaker, and media artist Matt Danzico. His work combines documentary filmmaking, journalism, photography, and visual storytelling. Danzico has worked with the BBC, founded and headed NBC Left Field, a documentary studio, and currently runs Danzico Studios.

While working in Ukraine, he documented the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion and became one of the initiators of The Bucha Blackboard project.

Today, the blackboard is in Westminster, London, from where it will be transported to Barcelona in October.

The exhibition opening in Barcelona will focus on the experiences of Ukrainian children whose lives have been changed by the Russo-Ukrainian war.

The exhibition space will evoke an abandoned classroom — a place that appears to have been left temporarily, with the expectation of returning. But they never did.

In addition to Ivan’s blackboard and his testimony, the exhibition will feature explanatory materials and translations of his text into Catalan and Spanish, a documentary film about Ivan, his family, and the history of the blackboard, as well as works by Ukrainian visual artist Alina Zamanova.

Following the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Zamanova’s artistic practice has focused on themes of war, memory, loss, and vulnerability. The experiences of Ukrainian children whose childhoods were radically changed by the war hold a special place in her work. Her works have been exhibited in Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, and the United States, including at the Saatchi Gallery, Max Hetzler Gallery, and the Royal Scottish Academy.

About the Centro Cultural Ucraniano

Centro Cultural Ucraniano (CCU) is a Ukrainian cultural association in Barcelona that works to showcase contemporary Ukrainian culture in Spain and integrate it into the broader European cultural context. CCU organizes exhibitions, film screenings, and music, literary, and interdisciplinary projects, creating a space for dialogue between Ukrainian artists, cultural figures, and European audiences. Another focus of the association’s work is projects that use art, documentary testimony, and cultural diplomacy to tell the story of contemporary Ukraine and the experiences of Ukrainians during Russia’s war.