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University supports largest exhibit of Ukrainian photography in the UK

Igor Chekachkov, Daily Lives Of The Displaced, 2022 (Lviv, in the dorm inhabited by displaced people)

The University of Liverpool is playing a key role in a city-wide photography project that sees imagery presented on campus with a complementary app designed by the University to help people explore this key part of EuroFestival.

In collaboration with Open Eye Gallery, the University campus joins other city-centre public realm sites to display a selection of six Ukrainian photographers who tell their stories about home through images. Displayed alongside the images are responding poems written by six UK poets including Professor Deryn Rees-Jones from the University’s Department of English.

Deryn has also contributed to At Home, a special edition of Open Eye Gallery’s in-house magazine TILT, which will be available at Open Eye. The magazine, produced in partnership with the University’s Centre for New and International Writing, shows photographs by contemporary Ukrainian photographers and poems and essays created in response to them. Speaking about producing the zine, Prof Deryn Rees-Jones, Co-Director of the Centre for New and International Writing, said: “The work featured here is by current and former students of Creative Writing at the University of Liverpool, and one poet whose work is published by Pavilion Poetry. All the writers, who are at different stages of their lives and careers, have had a chance to reflect, in poetry or prose, on what home means, using the photographs as a bridge to their own memory and imagination. Working on the zine has given us all an important opportunity to reflect on the war in Ukraine and its devastating impact.”

Additionally, an app designed by the University’s Digital Innovation & Application Development team, will lead EuroFestival visitors to independent spaces to see Home-themed Ukrainian photography collections in 5 trails across the city region. The themes of the trails are Land, Making, Liberty, Resistance, Settings. Each place will have an artwork by a contemporary Ukrainian photographer and a postcard for sale – profit will go to a charity supporting Ukraine. Find out more about the app here.

Tim Seamans, Director of External Relations at the University of Liverpool said: “The University is contributing in a variety of ways to help ensure the many events and projects surrounding Eurovision have a positive impact across the city and beyond, as part of which we’ve already held a series of events on campus and undertaken a fantastic project in local schools. We’re proud to not only be hosting elements of this unique and thought-provoking display but also offer the expertise of our staff to respond to the artwork creatively as well as digitally with the app.”

Read more about Home: Ukrainian photography inspiring UK words here.

Download the app from Google Play and Apple App Store.

 

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