03/09/2022, 12:00 pm – 11:59 pm, Die Nacht der Museen und Galerien 2022
, Kunsthalle Münster
Yarema Malashchuk & Roman Himey, Dedicated to the Youth of the World II, 2019, HD video, colour, sound, 9 min
CreditThe Kunsthalle Münster is also opening its doors until midnight as part of Nacht der Museen und Galerien. The exhibition A Letter from the Front shows a selection of videos and filmic works by 16 artists and an artists' collective from Ukraine.
The selection, compiled by visual artist Nikita Kadan (born 1982 in Kyiv) together withGiulia Coletti, shows 19 films made in the last 15 years by artists of different generations. Works by AntiGONNA, Yaroslav Futymsky, Nikita Kadan, Nikolay Karabinovych, Dana Kavelina, Lesia Khomenkо, Alina Kleytman, Katya Libkind, Yarema Malashchuk + Roman Himey, Lada Nakonechna, R.E.P., Daniil Revkovsky + Andriy Rachinsky, Mykola Ridnyi, Oleksiy Sai.
A Letter from the Front was commissioned and produced by the Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
A Letter from the Front is complemented by a reading room, which can be used by all visitors during the opening hours of the Kunsthalle Münster. One can immerse oneself in the available literature, use it as a workplace or place for conversations. During the accompanying events it serves as a place for lectures, readings and discussions. An introduction to the complex historical contexts can also be seen in the front room of the Kunsthalle in a lecture by historian Timothy Snyder on Germany's historical responsibility for Ukraine, which he gave in 2017 at the invitation of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen in the German Bundestag.
The visual experiences are further enhanced by the audio piece The Labour of Witnessing by Asia Bazdyrieva (born 1986 in Svitlodarsk) based on her war diaries. Written in the anticipation and throughout the Russian invasion into Ukraine in February – April, 2022, first in the bombshelter and then in her room in a family home in central Ukraine, these notes are both a reflection of the ongoing events and an embodied account of being reduced to war physically and mentally.