Alisa Oleva: Sounds Like Home – Listening Gardens
Meanwood Valley Urban Farm
Saturday 12 July – Saturday 9 August
Open weekly

Listening Gardens is a continuation of a collaboration between artist Alisa Oleva and Dasha Zakharets, from Kamianske, Ukraine, and now based in Leeds.

Over a month at Meanwood Valley Urban Farm, Alisa facilitates a connection with Kamianske via an outdoor listening station, live streaming audio from a twinned location thousands of miles away. The sounds are live streaming from Dasha’s cherished family cottage – a place she hasn’t been since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

The soundbox is taken care of in Ukraine by Dasha’s parents – Oksana and Ivan Zakharets. Read more about Dasha’s chosen location here.

Alisa invites you to listen to these sounds from faraway places, and asks:

What places do we carry with us as we move countries and homes, especially if we are not sure when we can return? How do those places sound now and how do we remember them sounding? What do you hear and what remains inaudible? What sounds are the same and which ones differ? Where do these sounds take you?

Having moved to the UK at the age of 17, Alisa’s practice as a walking artist explores the connection of walking and home-finding when one moves to another country.

Launch Event, Saturday 12 July, 12–3pm
Free, drop-in

Join us on Saturday 12 July, to celebrate the launch of the Sounds Like Home: Listening Gardens installation. Meet the artist and learn more about the project as we gather together for conversations on topics of home, connection to places and the infrastructures of care that allow us to create portals between places.

Alisa will lead a collective listening and walking session. Dasha will also be there to join conversations and tell more about her chosen location.

There’ll be traditional Ukrainian food prepared by Leeds Ukrainian Community Association volunteers.

12pm Welcome, introductions and food
12.45–2pm Listening and sound walking session with Alisa Oleva
2–3pm Stay, chat, listen

Practical information

  • Open during Meanwood Valley Urban Farm opening hours – open 7 days a week, 10am–4pm
  • The listening station is outdoors, covered from the elements with seating and is wheelchair accessible
  • There are toilets and parking on site
  • Head to the Meanwood Valley Urban Farm website for more information about your visit

In collaboration and with support from Soundcamp Cooperative