I already knew last fall that my Ukrainian friend Kateryna Semeniuk was going to organize an art exhibition in Stuttgart and that I absolutely had to go there. Kateryna enjoys a good reputation in the art scene as a curator, she is also co-founder of the memory platform “Past/Future/Art”. In 2022 we were both trainees at the Cross-Culture Program (CCP) of the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, which is how we got to know each other. Kateryna was also an intern at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart. During this time she planned the special show to visualize the tragedy of the Russian war against Ukraine through the eyes of art.
Last Friday was the vernissage of “From 1914 till Ukraine”, which has now been curated by Kateryna together with Anne Vieth and Oksana Dovgopolova. The exhibition shows how Ukrainian artists view the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which violated international law, and what parallels can be drawn to the work of Otto Dix.
Emiliia Dieniezhna (middle) with Christina Vogelmann (left) and Kateryna Semeniuk in the Stuttgart Art Museum.
(Photo: private)
I went to Stuttgart on Saturday with my friend Christina Vogelmann, a queer feminist bicycle activist from Stuttgart and also a CCP alumna. It was really nice to visit the exhibition with the team of the small CCP family and to share our impressions with each other. The longer the war in Ukraine goes on and the longer I don’t see my family members and friends in Ukraine, the more important it becomes for me to make new contacts, not only with compatriots who have fled to Germany, but also with the local population. That’s why I find it a real luxury to have friends like Kateryna and Christina and to share the important moments in life with them.
The first thing that struck me about the exhibition is the similarity between the works of the famous German painter Otto Dix and modern Ukrainian artists. Dix has addressed the two world wars in many of his works, while the modern Ukrainian artists show the current situation in Ukraine.
I was also very impressed with a unique tank archive that was put together directly for the exhibition. The archive consists of photos of tanks from World War II and from Russia’s war against Ukraine. The artists who worked on this archive found out that in the last century Ukraine was the country with the highest number of destroyed tanks in the world. During World War II, my country suffered from the destructive power of German tanks. Now German tanks can help Ukraine to defend itself against the destructive power of Russian tanks.
The poster for the exhibition, which can be seen until the end of July.
(Photo: Emiliia Dieniezhna / oh)
The picture by Ukrainian artist Denys Selivanov entitled “Retreat” will remain in my memory for a long time. It shows Ukrainians taking shelter under a bridge destroyed by rockets. They don’t find safety because the next rockets are already on their way. For me, this picture is a symbol of the situation in Ukraine as long as the war lasts. It’s good that art also helps ensure that the suffering in my country is not forgotten. The exhibition can be seen in the Stuttgart Art Museum until July 23.
Emiliia Dieniezhna, 34, fled from Kiev to Pullach near Munich with her then four-year-old daughter Ewa. She works voluntarily for the non-governmental organization NAKO, which aims to fight corruption in Ukraine. She also teaches German to Ukrainian refugee children. Once a week she writes a column for the SZ about her view from Munich on the events in her home country.