Wiktoria Wojciechowska’s Sparks is an interdisciplinary project portraying the war in Donbas. Created between winter 2014 and summer 2016 the project is centered around a series of portraits of young, regular people, coming from different backgrounds, who had to leave their lives and go to the frontline, become soldiers of war. The project is a polyphonic image comprised of photography, video, collages and stories. The artist has also included both her own material and sources provided by the soldiers and civilians, in her work. Subsequent series of works in the exhibition create an image of personal experience of a human faced with terrors of war, as well as personal and collective memory.
Sparks, presented in numerous exhibitions around the world, were mediating the conflict and the personal experience of the people involved in it, around the world. It has advocated the regular people’s suffering and trauma gained in the effect of this tragic war, to the international audiences and public opinion. Yet, it has never been presented in the Ukraine, to the people who took part in it and shared their personal stories. The exhibition at Lviv Art Center is the first public presentation of the Sparks in the Ukraine, an occasion to fill this gap and thank the participants for their generous involvement.
Seven years have passed since the project started and both the war and the portrayed soldiers are in a different place and situation in their lives. Having come back from the frontline they had to find themselves in civilian, everyday life. The exhibition at Lviv Art Center aims to underline the aftermath of the fighting experience in the lives of those who had to take the arms. The public programme will include not only artistic discussions and guided tours, but also events focused at the mental condition and psychological cost paid by the former soldiers.
The exhibition is a cooperation project between Lviv Art Center from the Ukraine and Krupa Gallery from Poland.
Wiktoria Wojciechowska (b. 1991) lives in Paris and Lublin, works across photography, film, collage and sculpture. Her works refer to current events portraying society and individuals. Her practices are particularly focused on observation and understanding of human lives and stories through the rules of society and history. The projects are characterized by fragmentariness and non-linearity based on shreds of conversations, images, rituals and collected items.
Sparks completed between 2014 and 2016 received several international awards, including at the Festival Rencontres d’Arles 2018: Prix Madame Figaro and Public Choice Discovery Award. Work has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions, such as: Jimei X Arles festival, Xiamen, China; Krakow Photomonth, Poland; Museum of Photography in Riga, Latvia; Exhibition Bureau in Warsaw, Poland; Villa Perochon, Niort, France; La Filature, Mulhouse, France; MUCEM, Marseille, France; Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon.
Wiktoria Wojciechowska’s works are part of public and private collections, i.a. Fondation Antoine de Galbert, Grenoble Museum; Festival Rencontres de la photographie, Arles; Fondation François Schneider, Wattwiller; Fondation des Treilles, Paris; Polish Modern Art Foundation, Warsaw. Recently she was part of the Trouble in Paradise PROLOG+1 project for the Polish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale Architettura 2021, Italy.
PUBLIC PROGRAMME
18.11.2021
4 pm
Press preview
18.11.2021
6 pm
Exhibition opening
19.11.2021
4 pm
Artist’s guided tour of the exhibition
7 pm
Panel discussion: Aftermath of being a solider
The war in Donbas, which is still carried on, has already been a disastrous experience for a large number of people, especially those who had to join the army. Changing one’s life and identification, from an engineer, show assistant of dj to a soldier, getting accustomed to the horrors of was, surviving the frontline, and than back to a civilian, living a regular life, cannot come without a cost. If it is possible at all. And this effect has risen to be an experience of a generation.
Those problems seem not to be addressed and present enough in the public debate. The panel with experts and ex-soldiers is aimed at discussing the visibility of problems and mental harm made by war.
The discussion will be held at Lviv Art Center as well as live streamed over Youtube. Submitting questions online will be available.
participants:
moderator: Pavlo Kovach
Roksolana Fedets
Levytskyi Maksym
Bura Daria
27.11 .2021
4pm
exhibition guided tour with the curator
2.12.2021
7:30pm
Mental health support infopoint
An open meeting. Roksolana Fedets, an expert in psychological support and therapy for people who have experienced trauma, will be providing basic information, for any interested persons, about the aftermath of the war in the mental health of the soliders.
Everyone is welcome to join, both soldiers and other people, interested in the symptoms, looking for ways to find support for themselves or their friends, having questions or wishing find a person to talk about those issues.
The meeting is open and free.
4.12.2021
4pm
exhibition guided tour with the curator
11.12.2021
4pm
exhibition guided tour with the curator
Press: