When Russian troops invade Ukraine on February 24, 2022, what many people around the world previously thought unimaginable happens: One European country attacking another. Since then, the headlines and images from Ukraine have dominated our news. The exhibition makes it clear that the outbreak of war is not the beginning, but the culmination of a long conflict.
Yaroslav Debely
In the exhibition, we are showing works by renowned Ukrainian photographers that tell the story of Ukraine's eventful history since the country's independence in 1991. Divided into four chronological chapters, we document the struggle for state independence, national identity and democracy, but also the suffering of the population during the war.
The raising of the Ukrainian flag at the parliament building in 1991, a Euromaidan activist in front of burning barricades in 2014, a janitor in a school destroyed by rockets in Donetsk in 2017 and the evacuation of the civilian population after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in 2023 are just some of the motifs.
A janitor in a school destroyed by rockets in Donetsk in 2017 © Volodymyr Petrov
Reporting from Ukraine often means risking one's own life. Selected objects from the everyday work of photographers Mstyslav Chernov and Evgeniy Maloletka are impressive examples of this. In 2022, they were the last journalists to report from the encircled city of Mariupol. Their team's work was honored with the Pulitzer Prize in 2023. We are showing selected photographs by them, as well as objects such as a microphone and a camera that they used in their work.
September 14, 2023 to February 25, 2024
www.hdg.de
© Alexey Furman
