The public organization “Museum of Modern Art” together with the Berlin Museum of Communication present the exhibition “The Art of Overcoming War” by five Ukrainian photographers.
This exhibition shows watching the war from the inside, from a dangerous distance – 5 male and female photographers show 5 personal reactions to the war. Everyone in their own way melts the traumatic experience into an artistic image.
Everyone in Ukraine has their own history of fighting against Russian aggression. It is woven into the common fabric of collective trauma. But while the country is still at war, it is important to observe and learn what is happening in Ukraine. This exhibition shows the observation of war from the inside, from a dangerous distance.
The works of the following authors are presented at the exhibition:
Oleksandr Glyadyelov
Documentation of war, 2022-2023
Oleksandr’s photos are war reportage. Previously, the author filmed in hot spots around the world, but for eight years the war has been going on in his country and Glyadyelov documents Russia’s war against Ukraine. On February 24, at the time of the start of the full-scale invasion, Glyadyelov was in the Kyiv region and immediately documented all the events, later he was in all hot spots and de-occupied regions. The author creates a series of visual reports about war as a way of fighting the occupier.
Yana Kononova
X-Scapes, 2022
X-Scapes is a series of objectless and ghostly landscapes created by the impact of thermal shock waves from explosions on various materials. Since March 2022, Yana Kononova has been investigating manifestations of military aggression. The author observes the paradoxical nature of modern war, caused by the dual nature of technology and equipment, which is both a tool of life and carries the power of destruction.
Sasha Kurmaz
Red horse, 2022-2023
Sasha Kurmaz started this project as a personal diary after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and documents the events he witnessed. The artist uses collage as an artistic method to combine various documents and information carriers together and most accurately and comprehensively outline the state in which he is. The artist documents his life during the war, shares thoughts, feelings, experienced fears and pain that affected him.
Olena Subach
Hidden, 2022
Olena Subach filmed this series in her native Lviv. This city in western Ukraine has become a relatively safe haven for more than 200,000 Ukrainians who were forced from their homes when the full-scale invasion began. Olena was able to film the process as an employee of the museum. Before the invasion, the photographer was always interested in the formal side of the embodiment of the image in photographs — color, play with flatness, intricate composition. After February 24, her artistic language rapidly converged with photojournalism and documentation.
Ihor Bondarenko
Flowers under attack, 2022-2023
Not a day goes by without bombs and rockets falling on Ukrainian land, but flowers against the background of explosions become a symbol of life that overcomes death. These images create a new symbolic reality. All the flowers and explosions were taken during a full-scale war.
The exhibition takes place as part of the program of events of the European Month of Photography in Berlin from March 2 to April 2, 2023 at the Berlin Communication Museum.
The project was implemented with the assistance of the Embassy of Ukraine in the Federal Republic of Germany.
