Year: 2023
Venue: Akerhof, Groningen (Netherlands)
This exhibition represents the wealth of Ukrainian photography for five decades. It begins in the 70s, at a time when Ukrainian visual art began to express its own language publicly, and ends with the war that is now sweeping the country.
“Ukraine: The Path to Freedom” visualizes key events in the history of Ukraine and examines the development of photography during this period. The exhibition aims to show how closely connected socio-political and artistic life in the country are.

The exposition consists of four parts corresponding to four recent historical periods and offers works by several generations of Ukrainian authors. It shows how photography operates on many social levels: as a method of capturing change, as a form of protest, personal history, reflection on events and political statement.
Art is a mirror of society, and photography in particular can be a means of deeper cultural understanding and interaction. It tells about how Ukraine follows a historical path of struggle for freedom, beyond its borders, the right to exist, culture and the future. As recent events prove, the price of this struggle is high.
