Unique multimedia exhibition, where testimonies of Ukrainians who suffered from russian aggression collected, opened in Kyiv

The Holosy [Voices] exhibition is open at the Kyiv History Museum - a multimedia space of the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation with an art installation by the creators of GOGOLFEST. The exhibition aims to reveal the depth and power of the living stories of peaceful Ukrainians about russian aggression.

Since 2014, the Museum of Civilian Voices has been collecting, preserving and sharing the stories of peaceful residents of Ukraine who suffered from the war of the russian federation against our country. 100,000 stories in the museum are the world's largest archive of testimonies of Ukrainians about russian aggression. This is a living history of the country firsthand, a valuable component of national memory, an important source of data for establishing justice.

Harmonious components of this exposition were a sound installation with five-channel surround sound, poems by Vasyl Stus, a video series from a compilation of documentary footage, animation, video art, and artifacts of the russian-Ukrainian war.

According to the organizers, the main idea of the exhibition is to tell the world about the evil that russia's aggression is causing to Ukraine.

Andrii Palatnyi, who is the theatrical curator of GOGOLFEST, spoke in more detail about the idea and purpose and creative implementation of the exposition:

"One of the tasks that we tried to implement is to find ways to comment on the events of the war, to respond to them, to involve the countries of the world in a dialogue. The three installations here form a triptych dedicated to the loss of home and the question - where is home. Home is the walls? Those close? Is it us? The first installation is the City. The Ruined City. The City of Memory. The City of Empty Buildings. The second consists of suitcases - The Pillar of Ruined Life, among which are Museum artifacts. The third is the wall of Refugees, where each figure hides an emotion, a story of a person who left. There is also a video installation that has an open ending. It is a question of how to live during war."

Visitors to the space will not only be observers, but also active participants. This is an amazing effect of presence, thanks to which each story will feel deep and voluminous. Video, audio and physical artefacts will create a single space to reveal the tragedy of war on the one hand, and the strength and dignity of people who persevered despite the horrors on the other.

Diana Popova, director of the Museum of the History of the City of Kyiv, told the first visitors of the exposition about the importance of partnership between museums and the value of operational documentation of events:

"For us, this partnership is about the exchange of expertise. It is very important to record information immediately, following the hot tracks, until the details and the feeling of the events are not erased from the memory. Years later, history is perceived differently - and felt differently."

"It is a great comfort to watch the growth of cool national initiatives to create documents of the era. One of the most powerful among them is the Museum of Civilian Voices. Initiatives that systematically, team-based, according to a certain methodology record data of the era, can become one of the main sources for research events in the future," the director of the Institute of National Remembrance, Anton Drobovych, in his turn spoke at the opening of the exposition about the importance of the offline space of the museum for the development of the culture of memory in Ukraine.

The museum's multimedia space is an opportunity to convey information in a unique way, to give people the opportunity to touch stories, not just hear them.

A component of the Voices exhibition was a sound installation, the music for which was written by the composer Yana Shliabanska, using the real voices of the heroes of the Museum of Civilian Voices. The poetic and musical composition was created by the team of actors Dakh-trio. The exhibition will also use a video series, which consists of a compilation of documentary footage, animations and video art. The exhibition also presents real wartime artifacts preserved by the museum.

Nataliya Yemchenko, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, emphasized that the exhibition reveals the depth of "living" stories of Ukrainians about the war.

"The Museum of Civilian Voices begins its physical existence. We are opening this multimedia space in partnership with one of the best historical museums of Ukraine - the Museum of the History of the City of Kyiv. Video, audio and physical art objects will create a single space to reveal, on the one hand, the tragedy of the war, and on the other hand, the strength and dignity of people who persevered despite the horrors. The exhibition will develop in interaction with the audience, will acquire new meanings and dimensions as a reliable source of truth about this war," Yemchenko said.

The exhibition will be open to a wide range of visitors until mid-April 2024. Entrance is free.