
Please note that public access to the exhibition is strictly limited, and only allowed with direct supervision from an MP or Parliamentary Pass Holder
Open Eye Gallery’s Home: Ukrainian Photography, UK Words exhibition tour will make its final stop in Portcullis House, Parliament. The exhibition brings together different generations of Ukrainian photographers whose diverse projects offer different understandings of the word ‘home’.
Since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the concept of ‘home’ has gained special importance to Ukraine’s social and cultural landscapes. ‘Home’ is one of the primary and most common concepts in our lives, something often taken for granted. But when the existence of your home is threatened, new value is found, and the concept is expanded.
The war has transformed Ukrainian photography into a record of conflict. While attempting to address the theme of ‘home’ and its new interpretations today, we inevitably turn to the point where, for Ukrainians, their home has become the epicentre of one of the greatest challenges to the democratic world in modern times.
Three years since the onset of the full-scale invasion, this exhibition highlights the most pressing stories of Ukrainians. It invites you to reflect on the experience of being at the heart of the largest military conflict in Europe since World War II and to consider ways we can support Ukraine and its culture.
Portcullis House is the final stop on the tour of Home: Ukrainian Photography, UK Words which has toured six cities across the UK: Salford, Leeds, Rochdale, Edinburgh, Leigh and London. Organised by Open Eye Gallery, the tour followed on from a series of exhibitions of contemporary Ukrainian photography across the Liverpool City Region in May 2023, whilst the city hosted Eurovision on behalf of Ukraine.
This exhibition weaves together the poignant visual narratives of leading Ukrainian photographers, reflective words of UK poets, and contributions from curators across Europe who offered their interpretations of the work. It is curated by Viktoria Bavykina (Co-Curator of Ukrainian.Photographies and British Council 90th Anniversary Research Fellow) and Max Gorbatskyi (Co-Curator of Ukrainian.Photographies and Curator at Open Eye Gallery).
Photographers: Igor Chekachkov, Alexander Chekmenev, Marina Frolova, Mykhaylo Palinchak, Polina Polikarpova, Yaroslav Solop, Elena Subach.
Poets: Hanan Issa, Deryn Rees-Jones, Jackie Kay.
Featured image by Mykhaylo Palinchak (fragment)
Please note that public access to the exhibition is strictly limited, and only allowed with direct supervision from an MP or Parliamentary Pass Holder
Address:
Portcullis House, Parliament
Please note that public access to the exhibition is strictly limited, and only allowed with direct supervision from an MP or Parliamentary Pass Holder
Open:
10am – 5pm, Tue – Sun