Meet the Team
Viktoriia Spalek
Founder and Editor-in-Chief Viktoriia Spalek is an event organizer, lecturer, and museum guide from Kharkiv, Ukraine. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022, she has been living in Berlin. She conducts Ukrainian-language tours and lectures in Berlin museums as part of the Portrait Art-Guide project and is a Ukrainian-language guide at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam.
She has also taken part in a literary course at the RBA Academy and has organized poetry readings and cultural events in Kharkiv and Berlin.
Richard Pettifer
Assistant Editor
Richard Pettifer is a critic, theorist, cultural producer, and literary translator from Australia, based in Berlin since 2013.
Since 2022, he has been in full-time collaboration with people from Ukraine, including cultural groups such as On Equals (Kyiv), Toteater (Kyiv), Mediagroup8 (Kharkiv), and Insha Osvita (Kyiv), building on a 20-year relationship with the country and experiences in the former Eastern Bloc region.
He is a founding member of Cultural Workers Studio, a Ukrainian-led, Women-led cultural production house in Flutgraben e.V., Berlin, and an Artist-Expert for the European Commission's Joint Research Project.
His collected published works of papers, articles, and criticism is available in English at www.theaterstuck.blogspot.com
Photo: Anita Kopylenko
Yaryna Yanchak
Marketing and OperationsWith a professional background in business and project management, Yaryna takes care of marketing and operations at DACH Magazine, helping ideas move from concept to execution. She enjoys creating structure where needed, supporting creative work with clear processes that keep things practical and moving forward.
Originally from Ternopil, Ukraine, and living in Germany for over a decade (in Berlin since 2021), she brings cross-cultural experience and focuses on coordinating both internal processes and external communication.
Daria Riabova
Social Media ManagerDaria was born in Luhansk and relocated to Kyiv in 2014, where she lived until the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since 2022 based in Dublin, Ireland. Daria leads the digital presence of DACH Magazine. She works at the intersection of social media strategy and visual identity, shaping how the magazine translates its editorial voice into the online space.
Her focus lies in building a coherent visual language for Instagram and developing a thoughtful content rhythm that reflects contemporary Ukrainian art and poetry. She approaches social media as an extension of the magazine’s cultural narrative. Daria is currently studying Creative Industries and Visual Culture at Technological University Dublin, where she focuses on the dynamics between visual culture, media, and contemporary creative practice.