An exhibition of wartime posters on the facade of the Uzhhorod cinema building
Residence Sorry No Rooms Available
The curator of the exhibition is Hanna Tsyba
Participants of the exhibition: Nikita Kadan, David Chichkan, Natalia Yurchenko, Alina Yakubenko
September 2, 2022 – July, 2023
The Exhibition of Wartime Posters on the facade of the Uzhhorod Cinema building continues the tradition of spontaneous artistic interventions that have developed over the years since the cinema has been closed. Built in 1932 by the architect Ludovit Oelschlaeger, the building of the cinema is one of the few monuments of constructivist architecture in the centre of Uzhhorod. Despite this, the building has been empty for over ten years, and the scale of destruction inside the premises indicates that it is no longer possible to restore it and use it for its functional purpose. The wooden panel covering the central entrance to the cinema has become a symbol of artists’ attempts to work with the void that appeared on the site of the former cultural center.
The exhibition presents works created by the authors in the period from March to September 2022. The works of the artist Nataliia Yurchenko reflect her emotional experience towards the dynamics of the Russian-Ukrainian war: from the anxiety-filled image of the resettlement of people and animals, painted after the artist moved to Uzhgorod in early March, to the triumphantly moody portrait of a Ukrainian military woman and a landscape with cotton, done in bright colors, created by the author after her return to her native Kyiv. Alina Yakubenko’s dramatic drawings reflect on the most traumatic topics — the deaths of civilians, destroyed homes, the violence of the Russian military against Ukrainian women and children. The graphic works of Davyd Chychkan and Nikita Kadan were created in August specifically for the exhibition, as part of the their participation in the artistic residency “Sorry, no rooms available” in Uzhhorod: a collective portrait of Roma fighting in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and a wartime landscape drawn from one of the streets of the Radvanka district in Uzhgorod.
Photo credit Petro Ryaska
Hanna Tsyba’s residence and the wartime poster exhibition project were created with the support of:
The beaux-arts Academy in Paris