“Ode to Sonia” is a cultural project by the Museum of Odesa Modern Art (MoOMA), dedicated to Sonia Delaunay.

Among the various figures of the Odesa Areopagus, the name of Sonia Delaunay is not often mentioned — a world-renowned artist, born in Odesa, whose legacy became one of the brightest phenomena of 20th-century avant-garde art.

Sonia Delaunay entered the history of art not only as a co-founder, together with her husband Robert Delaunay, of Orphism (Simultanism), but also as an artist who consistently broke down boundaries between painting, design, fashion, and stage design. Her artistic search was based on the idea of “total art”, where color, form, and light interact with space and the viewer.

In November 2025, the Museum of Odesa Modern Art (MoOMA) will launch a major polymedia cultural project “Ode to Sonia”, which will include sections dedicated to the artist’s life story, the different areas of her work, as well as contemporary Odesa artists’ interpretations of her heritage.
One of the unexpected and lesser-known experiments of Sonia Delaunay was in the 1930s, when she began working with the then-innovative lighting material mica-tube (light tubes). She created experimental “light posters” that combined the rhythm of color planes with the dynamics of electric glow. Among the most famous examples is the Zig-Zag cigarette paper poster (1935), which, according to some sources, won first prize in an advertising poster competition. She also took part in the Salon de la lumière (1935), where she presented “discs and ribbons of light”. These projects vividly testify to the breadth of Delaunay’s creativity.

Today, it would be fascinating to revisit these ideas using a modern material — neon tubes — which naturally echo Sonia Delaunay’s historical explorations.

Competition for Young Artists

As part of the cultural project “Ode to Sonia”, dedicated to Sonia Delaunay, the Museum of Odesa Modern Art (MoOMA) announces a competition for young Odesa artists (under the age of 35). The competition is designed to open a dialogue between the artist’s legacy and today’s visual culture, between the avant-garde of the 1910s–1930s and contemporary technologies.

Participants are invited to reflect on Delaunay’s experiments with light and color — to create sketches for light posters of the “Ode to Sonia” project and to realize their ideas in collaboration with the museum.

Participation Guidelines:
Application deadline: November 30, 2025
Application form and sketches (in any technique): via the online form at https://forms.gle/UKu1yVBKykzMM9EK7
The shortlist of 5 finalists will be announced on December 24, 2025

Awards:
– Each finalist will receive a prize of 5,000 UAH and a contract to realize their idea together with the museum
– The completed posters and sketches will be presented at the “Ode to Sonia” exhibition (February 2026)
– One of the winners will create the main banner for the exhibition façade of the museum

Intellectual rights remain with the authors, and after the exhibition, the sketches and completed posters will enter the MoOMA collection.

Important Information
The museum guarantees the privacy of all competition entries.
Sketches not included in the shortlist will not be used by the museum in any way or transferred to third parties.
Electronic versions of such sketches will be deleted after the selection stage is completed.

📌 Submit your application here: https://forms.gle/UKu1yVBKykzMM9EK7