Survivors & Victims Photo Exhibits
Much to the disbelief of Kievites who attempt to get their art on from time to time, two international-quality photo exhibitions opened this week at the Center for Contemporary Art at Kyiv Mohyla University and L’Art Gallery on Andreyvsky Sputsk. The first, a collection of World Press Photo finalists for 2005, features everything from legless divers and Cuban transvestites to tsunami devastation and Belsan survivors. The second exhibit, put on by the nonprofit Medecins Sans Frontiers, catalogs the organization’s last six years fighting HIV/AIDS around Ukraine. Both are well curated, well shot, and moving, but their content and philosophy could not be more different. World Press Photo pairs heart-wrenching journalism photos with factual blurbs, while MSF’s photogs use straightforward portraits to tell victims’ stories. And while the venues ain’t the MOMA, clean walls and wigless docents under age 80 paired with last week’s shockingly cosmopolitan Molodist film festival are inklings of an actual art scene in the capital. Even more amazing than the presence of art may be the crowds of Ukrainians lining up to look at it. The World Press exhibit runs through November 6, while the MSF exhibit ends November 13.
Center for Contemporary Art [Official site]
World Press Photo [Official site]
L'Art Gallery [Official site]
Medecins Sans Frontiers [Official site, in Russian]
Previously: Hotel Turf Wars, Rousseau at the Tate Modern, The Beacon at 55 Water Place, Library Way, No Scream Play
