You're reading: Euro 2012 photo exhibition opens at Kyiv History Museum

It’s been a year since the finale of the European football championship in Ukraine and Poland, but soccer fans can relive the event at a new art opening. 

Large,
lively photographs of the Euro 2012 events are on display now at the Kyiv
History Museum near Teatralna metro station and will stay there till the end of
June. 

Taken by four prominent photographers of Ukraine and Poland, the images aim
to remind visitors of the joys and sorrows of the championship, one of the
greatest sports events in both Ukrainian and Polish history. 

The exhibition is called,
“Euro 2012: two countries – one story.”

“The idea
to organize the exhibition was mine, but everything else was beyond me,” said Mykhailo
Chernichkin, one of two Kyiv photographers whose images are displayed at the
exhibition. He organized the project together with his son, Kyiv Post staff
photographer Kostyantyn Chernichkin.

“You know
how hard it is to do something real in Ukraine,” the older Chernichkin said,
adding that finding a sponsor was close to impossible. “All of those who earned
money and a better reputation from Euro 2012, including Borys Kolesnikov,
Grygoriy Surkis, McDonalds, Football Federation… they’ve kicked us away. The
supporters we have now (Canon, Plastics Ukraine, Polish Institute) joined us at
the last moment.”

In all, it
took a couple of months and lots of hard work to implement the idea, he added.

“We spent a
lot of our own money and many, many hours here preparing everything,” said
Kostyantyn Chernichkin. In the end, around eight dozen pictures from the
stadiums, fan zones as well as the faces of Euro 2012 both in Ukraine and
Poland, are displayed in two museum halls.

“We were
very lucky with our Polish colleagues, they are very professional
photographers,” said  Mykhailo  Chernichkin, noting the photograph of an
Irish fan whose face is pressed against a bus window in Poland – one of the most
popular pictures at the exhibition.  Its author,
Polish photographer Mariusz Forecki, told the Kyiv Post that he is very happy
to be a part of the project.

“It is the
main task of every photographer to show what we had in Ukraine and Poland last
year,” he said adding that he didn’t shoot stadiums and matches, but rather the
life of Polish cities during the championship.

The other
Polish participant, Adam Nurkiewicz, who also arrived for the exhibition opening,
seemed to be enjoying the event as well.

“Now it
feels much more emotional to me now than the matches did a year ago,” he said.
“Back then it was mostly work, while now it is pure observation and emotions,”
he explained.

On the
exhibition’s opening night, visitors could be heard recalling moments of the
football championship and exclaiming their amazement at the displayed images.

“All the
shots are amazing. One could develop a plot and write a novel from every single
one of them,” said singer Oleksandr Fedorenko, who came to the opening. “I was
out of the country during Euro 2012, but now I finally have a chance to see everything
with my own eyes.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected].