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Self portrait by Alevtina Kakhidze. Courtesy photo A new exhibition “1989-2009 Changing World, Telling Time,” organized by Goethe Institute Ukraine and National Art Museum of Ukraine, is dedicated to modern photography and video art from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Germany.

The exhibition explores the transition of post-Soviet countries that has been going on ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The photographs on display and videos reflect the “changing” world from an artistic point of view.

Some 200 photographs and five video works picked by Berlin curator Jule Reuter together with other six project curators tell the story of change that took place in seven ex-Soviet countries and Germany, focusing on four important topics: family, identity, urban life and politics.

For instance, documentary photo sessions by Irina Abzhandadze and Christian Borchert made families a central theme of their works. Other artists – Erbossyn Meldibekov, Nubrossyn Oris, Vladimir Kupriyanov and Igor Savchenko – used photographs from old family albums.

Photos by Tina Bara, Alba D’Urbano, Oksana Shatalova, Alevtina Kakhidze and Talgat Asynrankulov show their attitude to their own personal history and national identity. A group of photographs by Shailo Dzhekshenbayev, Oksana Shatalova, Viktor Marushchenko and Viktor An is dedicated to urban changes and social consequences of post-Soviet transformation in the cities. Marushchenko cast light on humiliating work conditions in illegal coal mines in Ukraine. An’s photos from 1989 expose ecological catastrophe in the Aral Sea on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Because of Soviet irrigation projects, it has been drying out and shrinking beyond imagination.

Olga Chernysheva and Koka Ramishvili chose the big-format video works to highlight a political angle. Coincidentally both artists come from Russia and Georgia – the two countries that were involved in an armed conflict in 2008.


National Art Museum of Ukraine (6 Hrushevskoho, 278-7454). Through Dec. 6. Tickets Hr 20, for students – Hr 10, for school kids and pensioners – Hr 2.