Home. Settings @ The Atkinson

Part of the HOME project

The projects ‘My World is not Real Enough for an Apocalypse’ by Sasha Kurmaz and ‘Dreamland Donbas’ by Viktor Marushchenko were both shot in the Donetsk region but at different times and told about different people and communities.

The heroes and heroines of Marushchenko’s photographs are the illegal coal miners trying to make ends meet. Kurmaz’s story is about the ‘social life of the young generation in the Donetsk region, its form and relationship in the environment.’

Viktor Maruschenko was a celebrated documentary photographer who became the central figure in the popularisation of contemporary photography and the development of photography education in Ukraine. Sasha Kurmaz is one of the leading contemporary Ukrainian artists working with photography, among other mediums; he also was a student and later a teacher at Maruschenko’s school.

The Atkinson exhibition is a part of the HOME programme, organised by Open Eye Gallery and commissioned by Culture Liverpool for EuroFestival. Working together with Ukrainian curators Viktoria Bavykina and Max Gorbatskyi (Ukrainian. Photographies) and partners in Liverpool City Region, HOME reflects on the question What does home mean?

An app, designed by University of Liverpool team, will lead the EuroFestival guests and Liverpool City Region locals to independent spaces to see Home-themed Ukrainian photography collections in 5 trails across the city region. The themes of the trails are Land, Making, Liberty, Resistance, Settings. The Atkinson is the end point of the Settings trail. A setting can protect, save, help, giving a feeling of comfort and security. It can also be hostile and unwelcoming, a source of fear and uncertainty. Just as we transform them, our surroundings transform us. A setting shapes the stories of its inhabitants; it defines who we are, who we can become.

The Atkinson will also host an artwork by a contemporary Ukrainian photographer and a postcard for sale from the front desk – all profit will go to the Hospitallers medical group, an organisation focusing on sourcing and delivering medical supplies for paramedics who save human lives in Ukraine. We invite everyone to collect the postcards and upload your own poem, lyric or a letter in response.

The Atkinson opening times:

10am – 4pm, Monday – Saturday

For full visiting information check their Visit Us page.

More exhibitions at The Atkinson

About the HOME project

Image credit: Sasha Kurmaz, From the My World Is Not Real Enough For An Apocalypse series, Donetsk, Ukraine, 2011.