Exhibition: "Kharkiv—Requiem"
Destruction of Cultural Sites
Stanislav Ostrous, Photographer
Konstantin Akinsha, Curator
November 5, 2022‑February 15, 2023
Gallery, Amherst Center for Russian Culture
In the case of Kharkiv, its vulnerable geographic position puts at risk the lives of its people, as well as the physical stores of its vast cultural knowledge. The journalists Isobel Koshiw and Ed Ram note that "Kharkiv’s architecture reflects the city’s regional significance over centuries," encompassing traditional, art nouveau, neoclassical, renaissance, industrial, and Soviet styles, to say nothing of the tens of thousands of works of art and artefacts housed in Kharkiv's museums.
UNESCO is tracking damages to cultural properties in Ukraine, in line with the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. These figures represent the losses cataloged as of October 2022. A total of 51 damaged sites have been recorded, 27 in Kharkiv city proper, and an additional 24 in the broader region.
We focus on Kharkiv to exhibit Ostrous’s remarkable series of photographs—but we do so while thinking of the whole of Ukraine in the defense of its freedom.
Prepared by Claudia Lonkin, October 2022
Sources:
“Damaged cultural sites in Ukraine verified by UNESCO.” UNESCO. 24 October, 2022.