Last weekend, May 3, in the Art Space of the Odessa Regional Universal Scientific
The opening of the Ukrainian conceptual photography festival "Refraction" took place at the M. S. Hrushevsky Library.
"Refraction" is a project that brought together artists from different regions of Ukraine around the theme of identity transformation under the influence of the environment. The concept of the festival is about internal refraction in visual images. About those changes that do not have unambiguous signs, but deeply affect a person.
"We don't talk about war directly. But war is present. As a background, as a shadow, as a pressure that changes the face. We explore how a person reacts to these shifts: sometimes disappearing, sometimes taking on a new form, sometimes seeing himself for the first time." — festival curator Maya Makeeva.
The final exhibition included over 30 works by selected participants who presented series in the genres of conceptual and surreal photography. United by a common idea, these works capture fragile moments of internal shifts: the masks we wear every day; the shadows of the past that penetrate the present; the disappearance of faces as a reaction to an attempt to survive; mirrors in which it is difficult to recognize oneself.
The festival was opened by:
- Maya Makeeva — author of the idea, photographer, Gestalt therapist and psychology teacher;
- Valery Leshchynskyi — Creative/Art Director Kyivphotos-Hall 2012, a famous Ukrainian curator and theorist of visual art.
- Oleksandr Voropayev — Chairman of the Board of the Odessa Regional Organization of the National Union of Photographic Artists of Ukraine.
Special opening guests:
- Iryna Antonovych — poet, news anchor of Ukrainian Radio, brand voice of Radio "Culture", author of bardic songs. Iryna presented a literary program created specifically for the theme of the festival — about the voice of inner silence, images that have no faces, and words that sound in reflections.
- Oksana Chepelyk (online guest) — a famous artist, leading researcher at the Institute for Contemporary Art Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, presented her own video film "Refraction of Reality." This is a video essay about visual memory, fragments of the "I" that are refracted in a changed reality.
Photo festival organizers:
Art association "Kyivphotos-Hall 2012" and Odesa Regional Universal Scientific Library named after M. S. Hrushevsky.
The festival is held with the assistance of the Odessa Regional Organization of the National Union of Photo Artists of Ukraine.
The exhibition can be visited daily, except Sunday, from 10:00 to 17:00 in the Art Space of the Odessa Regional Universal Scientific Library named after M. S. Hrushevsky, 49/51 Troitska St.
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