Russian War Crimes. Exhibition
Main photo: Maxim Dondyuk, Kharkiv, Ukraine – March 17, 2022, Emergency workers tackling a fire at Kharkiv’s Barabashovo, the largest market in Eastern Europe. The fire has been caused by Russian artillery shelling attack.
On the 23rd of May 2022, during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Russian War Crimes House exhibition took place in the former Russian House. A symbolic gesture to bring the horrific reality of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine to the attention of the world.
The project captured the world’s media and became the most spoken about subject in Davos. Now the exhibition is presented at the NATO Headquarters and will be shown in the European Parliament in September.
Kharkiv, Ukraine – March 25, 2022
Blood trail left by a victim’s body outside of a metro station after a Russian missile strike killed six civilians and injured 15 more. They were waiting in line for humanitarian aid.
Initially, the idea was to present this project in parallel with the When Faith Moves Mountains exhibition, but we decided to unite them. At this point, any conversation relating to art in Kyiv starts from its relation to this surpassing disaster. The Russian War Crimes is therefore the end of the trajectory, but its contents are present from the very first moment one enters the PinchukArtCentre. The photos become a collective image created by photographers who have been a part of an evidence-gathering effort to document and register the Russians’ war crimes against the Ukrainians. Its imagery is a key reference for thoughts and minds through the When Faith Moves Mountains. This deliberate inclusion focuses on reality, addressing its urgency and its inescapability.
Mariupol, Ukraine – March 9, 2022
Burial of the killed in a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol. Due to heavy shelling by Russian forces, this is the only way to bury the dead in the city.
The photographs have been taken all over Ukraine since the start of the war until the beginning of July. Even so, they only address a fraction of the known crimes. The Russian War Crimes House is culminating in a film work by Oleksiy Sai who brought together 6400 different verified images of war crimes committed by Russians in Ukraine. The massive scale of this work combined with the aggressive editing and sound forces a state of permanent shock.
The Russian War Crimes organised by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and PinchukArtCentre in partnership with the Office of the President of Ukraine, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Ukrainska Pravda and the Ukrainian association of professional photographers.
Mariupol, Ukraine – March 7, 2022
Body covered by a tarp, lying in a street.
The present exhibition is curated by Björn Geldhof, Artistic Director of the PinchukArtCentre and Ksenia Malykh, Head of the PinchukArtCentre Research Platform.
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