Mikael Colville-Andersen

Mikael Colville-Andersen is a Danish urbanist, author, filmmaker, photographer and television host whose work has long explored cities, human behaviour and everyday life. Before his international career in urbanism, he had a successful period as an exhibiting artist from the late 1990s through the mid-2000s.

In 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion, Colville-Andersen went to Ukraine to volunteer his skills as an urbanist and support Ukrainian cities and communities. He did not go to Ukraine to make art. Art appeared back in his life when he least expected it, but when he needed it the most.

Living and working in Kyiv during the war, repeated missile strikes and the realities of everyday wartime life led to anxiety disorder and PTSD. He began sketching almost involuntarily, as a way of processing what was happening around him.

Those sketches gradually developed into paintings, assemblages and other works, eventually leading to two exhibitions in Kyiv.