“It’s hard to understand who I am, but I started with music, then modelling, then art, and then organising projects. That process helped me understand what I really want to do.”
Thus begins our conversation with Vlada Coxx, a multidisciplinary artist who, amid the tremors of a historical rupture, channels her practice into the safeguarding of her nation’s cultural and spiritual core. Through her work, she preserves not merely the flavors and ethos of tradition, but the very memory of belonging itself. Her dishes revist ancestral flavors and her grandmother’s recipes, transforming smoked pears and other nostalgic ingredients into a sensory performance.
“It’s very important now not to forget our identity and our roots. Many people stopped speaking Ukrainian and only used Russian, but today it’s crucial to bring the roots back.”
Vlada’s trajectory resists linear narration: from MasterChef stages to gallery walls, from intimate culinary performances to pop-ups and music events, she continually expands her creative lexicon. Her oeuvre fuses disparate realms into an experimental alchemy, her internationally distributed product line, for instance, transforms packaging into miniature works of art, converting taste into an aesthetic encounter.
“I’m Ukrainian, but I lived half of my life in Israel and later in Berlin. Everywhere I go, I mix cultures. I discovered connections between Israeli food, Levantine food, and Ukrainian traditions. For me, it’s the ‘history of taste,’ and it became something like our slogan.”
The eruption of war, however, compelled her return to Ukraine. Yet what might appear as a homecoming is, in fact, an intensification of endeavors cultivated over years: art projects, collaborative networks, and volunteer initiatives designed to fortify her homeland.
“Coming back to Ukraine during the war has been very powerful. The city is growing, new restaurants, exhibitions, galleries are opening, despite the fact that every night and every day there are bombings. People never give up, and that’s amazing to see. After four years away, I felt a big change.”
In Kyiv, she curates private chef dinners, art salons, and exhibitions, spaces where cultural resistance intertwines with tangible support for Ukraine. These gatherings are not mere events; they are acts of care, where art, cuisine, and community converge to form a collective bulwark against neglect.
“I also see this work as a kind of volunteer project. Before the war, we focused on helping abandoned kids and providing equipment for soldiers, never vehicles, because I don’t want to support that. For me, the most important thing is the kind of help you provide: kids are okay, equipment is okay, but we never raise money for weapons.”
This Sunday, 21 September, Vlada will orchestrate another chapter in this ongoing cultural resistance: a day-long gathering at Otel’ in Kyiv. From 16:00 until 22:00, the programme will feature The Brvtalist alongside Mongus, a sonic meditation on togetherness and communal belonging. The Brvtalist, an American artist residing in Berlin, returns to Kyiv for a second time, bringing a vision intrinsically linked to the ethos of collective creation. His collaboration with Vlada Coxx, nurtured over years, emerges from a shared experimental instinct and a refusal to remain static.
“I also want to highlight the community around me: the DJs, artists, and collaborators working with me. It’s not only about me but about the whole team… Sharing these voices is also important for our project.” – Vlada
“For me, it’s important to keep this open approach… It’s what I enjoy the most. And that’s why it’s great to connect with people like Vlada, who share the same mindset and are also building something multidisciplinary and unique.” – The Brvtalist
The event MESIVO (IL) X NECROMECHANICA (UA) unfolds as a layered, symbiotic dialogue: a rhythmical oscillation between EBM, electro, broken beat, and house, punctuated by performative interventions that fracture and reassemble tempo itself. The Brvtalist opens with an open-genre set, followed by MONGUSS (DE), a Berlin-based performer. Vlada herself assumes the role of DJ with her collective Mesivo, before INFIDELO and Mara Angmas close the evening.
“There you really feel how necessary and powerful these events are. There’s nothing like it anywhere else in the world right now… It’s also not driven so much by drugs or alcohol, it’s more about people meeting, dancing, and feeling free for a few hours. That builds community.” – The Brvtalist
These gatherings transcend commerce, operating on a visceral plane of skin and gaze, answering an urgent collective imperative for renewal. They reveal not just the material struggle of survival, but the resilience of tradition and the fierce affirmation of life in the face of rupture.
