Re: if a city were a lover
Dear Berlin,
"Thank you for holding me in your arms when I needed it most"— I type on me Instagram as I posted me film photos from the last few years. (I developed a large portion of these pictures in Kharkiv last winter. And the last roll—at the Kotti shop.) When I added a heart-letter emoji, your Open Call* came to mind.
A love letter for Berlin.
Yes, I've wanted to write this for a few months now, but I was always missing something: sometimes time, sometimes words, sometimes something else. Or, perhaps, I was missing that typewriter I received as a Christmas present in Kharkiv. Maybe one of those things, or the other, or all of them together, or none of them at all. But what I've realized lately is that everything has its moment. Whether you can prepare for that moment, I don't yet know. Perhaps everything is just a coincidence, allowing the story to keep moving forward. Yes, of course, I wanted a typewriter, but I never know who first brought it from the German-speaking world to Ukraine, or how. You can create all sorts of fantasies about that. Exactly—to create. Fantasies, like love, are meant to be created. Decisions need to be made when it comes to love. We often write about Romantic Love because we are trying to understand these wonders. But perhaps Love is always there, and just like the typewriter and beautiful paper (from Bulgaria, but acquired again in Kharkiv), we should, or can, create space for Love so that when it comes, we are ready. Or does Love come where there is space for it? Where is a beautiful corner, or space, is created? Perhaps. And perhaps, you, Berlin, helped me to make, open, and create this space, and for that, I thank you, dear Berlin.
P.S. Love, like fantasy, needs an impulse, then the soil to grow in, and then the courage to pursue one's decision until the plant can grow on its own. Thank you to the Li-Be Berlin Team* for being such a soil.
Yours, Kharkiv romantic
Vasylysa Shchogoleva
28.04 - (27(10).03.2026,
Berlin-Kreuzberg
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This text was originally written and typed in German.
Please, find the scanned copy of the text below. 
The pink dashes are breathing pauses, as I had the honor to read this text on 28.04.2026 in Berlin during the Manege frei! An event organised by the Li-Be Berlin Team, to whom I thank in this text.
* There is an additional team I would like to thank - Schnipsel - on whose Open Call I was replying in March, and a decision on which I am currently waiting.
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P.P.S. A few months later, on Sunday the 05.06.2026, in the frame of the 48 Hours Neukölln, I had a chance to become part of the photo project Eine Sitzordnung by Carola Thielecke & Thilo Seibt from fasb-berlin, and seal my relationship with Berlin and Kharkiv in one shot.
