WITNESS
Faces of Ukraine 1994 – 2022
PHOTOGRAPHS BY OLEKSANDR CHEKMENYOV
Curated by: Konstantin Akinsha
Institute for Contemporary Art
Trg kralja Tomislava 20, Zagreb
Exhibition opening, Monday, July 11, 2022 @ 8:00 pm
The exhibition remains open until July 23, 2022
Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday 1:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Oleksandr Chekmenyov is one of the leading contemporary photographers in Ukraine. His works have frequently been published in Time, The Guardian, Vice, Libération, and other international news outlets. But Chekmenyov is not a traditional photojournalist. His photographs have often been included in exhibitions of contemporary Ukrainian art and purchased by international art museums. His chosen genre is the portrait. The Ukrainian photographer prefers to produce images, distinct from but akin to each other, of people photographed in the same context (dwellings of the poor, hospitals, war zones). As a result, his repetitive catalogues of human types convey the story of a population suffering economic deprivation or the anguish of victims of war. Chekmenyov has created a striking and disturbing collective portrait of contemporary Ukrainian society. At the moment, the photographer creates a series of portraits of both participants and victims of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, documenting both the heroism and suffering of the Ukrainian people. The NYT Magazine published a part of the project on March 26-27 of this year.
The exhibition is organised in collaboration with
Università Ca’ Foscari, Venice, Italy