KAZKY

THE FAIRYTALES OF UKRAINIAN CHILDREN

Artwork by Aza Nizi Maza

We are excited to announce a long-term, multi-composition collaboration with the Aza Nizi Maza art school, an extraordinary educational and creative sanctuary located in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

THE SCHOOL

Aza Nizi Maza is nothing short of a miracle. Based in a cavernous basement that currently doubles as a bomb shelter, this organization—led by visionary artistic director Mykola Kolomiets—fosters creativity and inclusivity. In recent years Aza Nizi Maza has garnered well-deserved global recognition for the vibrant, imaginative, and often monumental artwork created by its children, which has been presented in esteemed galleries, museums, and public installations across European capitals and the United States.

Among the school’s many remarkable projects is a particularly meaningful commission: the creation of murals inside the rabbi’s house at the Babyn Yar Memorial in Kyiv, a site etched in history as one of the worst Nazi atrocities of World War II. In a statement of historical memory and unwavering inclusivity, Aza Nizi Maza offered this project specifically to the neurodivergent children enrolled in the school, amplifying the voices of those whom the Nazis sought to dehumanize.

Further cementing their status as cultural leaders, the school is the subject of a forthcoming feature-length documentary, and its charismatic director, Mykola Kolomiets, recently received the prestigious UP100 award recognizing top Ukrainian leaders across all disciplines.

Confronting a relentless bombardment, the children of Aza Nizi Maza respond with art that is vibrantly, defiantly life-affirming. Their work has moved audiences worldwide and is a testament of the enduring power of the human spirit which blossoms even under the threat of annihilation. Our collaborative project is a commitment to amplifying those voices.

KAZKY

Following an exchange of ideas and a review of our past work, Aza Nizi Maza granted Soundscape Visions access to a wealth of new large-scale drawings from their evocative “Lost Fairytales” and “Underground Garden” collections. Each image in these collections is a universe, packed with imaginative detail and rich, symbolic artifacts—from rose hips and seashells to witches and princesses—of a kind that only the fantasy of a child could conjure. Inspired by this imagery, we are calling this project Kazky - Ukrainian word for fairytales"

Artwork by Aza Nizi Maza

Soundscape Visions will transform these magnificent tapestries into a series of immersive, time-based audio-visual compositions. This ambitious undertaking will unfold over the coming years, beginning with the premiere of the first composition anticipated in 2026.

Our process begins with charting a storytelling plan, which serves as the blueprint for the composition. Following that, our video artist François meticulously translates the drawings into video art, treating the painted artifacts as living characters. His approach involves navigating within the rich imagery using cinematic zooms and rhythmic sequencing, ensuring the original lines and brushstrokes remain intact while revealing a narrative latent within the work.

Aza Nizi Maza students have created a rich collection of symbolic artifacts (rose hips, seashells, bones, bats, frogs, lions, witches, princesses, and more) assembled into poetic “lost” narratives. My video work would treat those artifacts not as static emblems but as living characters. By navigating within them, juxtaposing motifs from different panels, and revealing hidden visual connections, I could imagine a new fairy tale that hasn’t yet been written but is latent in the collective imagination. The viewer becomes both reader and seer: meeting the painted world, discerning transitions, and sensing the figure’s interior journey through time.

—François-Xavier de Costerd

As the visual universe emerges, the musical team—Alex and Ara—create music and sound design. Music and sound textures act as an emotional commentary and a connective tissue, evolving and interacting organically with the visuals, oscillating between underscoring and driving the tone and pace of the narrative. Throughout the process the artists exchange ideas and requests ensuring the coherence of the final composition.

This simultaneous creation of sight and sound highlights the collaborative core of Soundscape Visions, culminating in a live performance where the story unfolds on an enormous screen, supported by a live, original soundscape.

In our early composition What I See we featured artwork by Aza Nizi Maza students along with our original music. While this impactful composition moved many viewers, it featured largely unprocessed original images with purely acoustic soundscape. We believe that the vibrant worlds of Lost Fairytales and Underground Gardens require us to take both the sound and the visuals several steps further in order to give them justice, a challenge we are ready for, and can't wait to immerse into these fantastic universes together!

Stay tuned for updates about ourKazky project, including senak-peeks and performance dates.