On October 28, Odessa hosted an exclusive exhibition of contemporary Ukrainian art for the participants of “The Odesa Debate”, an international conference to discuss political and economic issues between Ukraine and its transatlantic partners in Europe and America.

It was a common initiative by the art producer Christine Ritsa and Bruno Lété, Senior Fellow of German Marshall Fund of the US and organiser of “The Odesa Debate”.

Among the distinguished guests of Odessa enjoying the unusual artistic and networking event there were: Matti Maasikas, Head of Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, Mykola Bohoslavets, President International Center of Diplomatic Cooperations, Wayne Raabe, Director of Interagency Partnering U.S. European Command, Birey Yilmazsoy, Consul General of Turkey in Odessa, Oleg Fomychov, Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Norway in Odessa.

The event took place at InVogue#Art Gallery, directed by Natali Simonova, and showed the artworks of four creators: Vitalina Forostovets, Inna Pantelemonova, Bandero Vadim and sculptor Yuri Musatov.

The exhibition is in the framework of a collaboration with the art project "Sorge", curated by Natalia Simonova and Anna Chubar. Six contemporary artists from all over Ukraine (Valik Lapshin, Pazza Pennello, Lera Fokina, Elena Zublevich, Alexandra Tokareva, Anna Anufrieva) collected their works on their vision of self-care under the roof of the Odessa gallery.

The participants were welcome by a buffet table from the Oblaka restaurant and a wine bar from Goodwine. Background music was specially written for this project by DJ @djvivadior: a mix of electronic music with classical.

Exhibition concept:

At the end of the 1st century BC, the ancient Roman polymath and writer Gaius Julius Hyginus wrote that care is the main state of human existence. Caring made people out of sound, and Jupiter endowed them with a soul. Later, already in the twentieth century, philosopher Martin Heidegger, reflecting on care, deduced the concept of “sorge”.

Here, care is the main aspiration and the meaning of human existence. It is through caring - about oneself or another - that a person experiences his own existence. Thanks to this trait, he not only exists on automatism, but lives a genuine life, cognizes himself and reality.

But what does caring mean in today's world? In particular, self-care? She often does not look as attractive as she seems. Real self-care is not a bubble bath or chocolate cake eaten. And the choice to build your life so that you don't have to constantly run away from it. Even if this can be achieved through overcoming oneself.