Exhibition “Ukraine and Ukrainians” | The Ivan Honchar Museum National Centre of Folk Culture

Ukraine is a land of warriors and farmers.

It’s a land of dense forests, vast fields, gushing rivers, quiet lakes, and high mountains.
It’s a place where bread is sacred.
It’s a place where people talk with the wind, listen to the music of the rain, and gaze into the shadows of the fog.
It’s a place where birds soar in dreams, thoughts and depths of human feelings.
It’s a place where willpower and spirit are tempered protecting the ancestral land.
It’s a place where artists command ancient words and images rooted in thousands of years of history.
It’s a place where family is the cornerstone of existence.
It’s a place where people sincerely welcome with a smile on their faces and warmth in their hearts, guests, friends and strangers alike.
It’s a place where people preserve language and traditions – the spiritual treasures of their land.
It’s a place where people understand every blade of grass, animal and bird, and communicate with them, accepting the wisdom of their existence.
It’s a place where people keep their ancestors close, with nothing but a heartbeat between them.
The people who live here are free and value freedom of thoughts and expression above all else.
It’s a place where songs are passed down from generation to generation
And where every corner and every individual reveals a soul-nourishing universe of wonders.

The exhibition “Ukraine and Ukrainians” features images from the early 20th century taken from the Ivan Honchar Museum National Centre of Folk Culture (Kiyv, Ukraine). Ivan Honchar first compiled the images in his 18-volume historical-ethnographic album with the same name.

Among the array of photographs, we have chosen around 40 images presenting Ukrainians of the past centuries. Proud of their origin, magnificent, intent, freedom-loving – these are the ancestors of Ukrainians.

Ivan Honchar travelled extensively across Ukraine between the 1960s and the beginning of the 1990s to build his collection. Until the end of his life, he continued to work on the historical-ethnographic album that provided a cultural panorama of his own country. The author’s greatest dream was to see this work published. Today, we have the honour of sharing a portion of this magnificent collection with the world in support of that objective.

 “A deep and almost jealous love for one’s compatriots nourishes everything that is noblest and most human. It is a quality inherent in all nations. It is also an inexhaustible source of human energy, a stirring incitement to patriotism, and our most potent defence against the enemy’s assaults on our dignity. It fosters both global solidarity and humanity at the same time. Through deep knowledge of himself and his people, man learns the most about the world – and what is common to him in the lives and works of other nations. Cultivating love for one’s own community might also help one gain a deeper understanding of other people’s values.”  Ivan Honchar

Details 

When: 3–31 August

Where: The Hartwig Alley, Kowalska 3

Admission free