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"Beyond the Silence" Exhibition Opens in Lviv, Featuring Untold Stories from Mexico to Ukraine

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Maryna_kulakova
Maryna Kulakova
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"Beyond the Silence" Exhibition Opens in Lviv, Featuring Untold Stories from Mexico to Ukraine
On March 21, the Beyond the Silence multimedia exhibition, a collaboration between the Odesa Photo Days Festival and Magnum Photos, opened at the Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv, Ukraine. (Source: Jam Factory Art Center)

On March 21, Beyond the Silence multimedia exhibition, a collaboration between the Odesa Photo Days Festival  and Magnum Photos , opened at the Jam Factory Art Center  in Lviv, Ukraine.

The exhibition explores the often-overlooked connections between Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Nigeria, and Myanmar, creating a visual dialogue among photographers and highlighting their shared experiences, stories, and reflections on common challenges.

One example is Rafal Milach’s work with Magnum Photos in Mexico. Milach conducted interviews with fifty people of various ages and social statuses. The resulting video, Have You Heard?, is featured in the exhibition and divided into two parts.

The first segment features Mexicans discussing their views on security, peace, and war. In the second, they are asked if they have heard of Ukrainian cities like Bucha and Bakhmut, both of which are sites of Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

On March 21, the Beyond the Silence multimedia exhibition, a collaboration between the Odesa Photo Days Festival and Magnum Photos, opened at the Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv, Ukraine. (Source: Jam Factory Art Center)
On March 21, the Beyond the Silence multimedia exhibition, a collaboration between the Odesa Photo Days Festival and Magnum Photos, opened at the Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv, Ukraine. (Source: Jam Factory Art Center)
On March 21, the Beyond the Silence multimedia exhibition, a collaboration between the Odesa Photo Days Festival and Magnum Photos, opened at the Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv, Ukraine. (Source: Jam Factory Art Center)
On March 21, the Beyond the Silence multimedia exhibition, a collaboration between the Odesa Photo Days Festival and Magnum Photos, opened at the Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv, Ukraine. (Source: Jam Factory Art Center)

Violence, both overt and hidden, serves as the central theme across nearly all of the exhibition’s works. The twelve stories, captured by twelve different photographers, cover topics such as Territory, Fight and/or Adaptation, Kidnapping, and Censorship. These themes, though universal, are adjusted for the specific contexts and histories of each country.

“The topics explored are shared across different countries, each adapted to its own context and history. These themes formed the foundation for the photographers' interactions. Watching this process unfold was fascinating, though the final result was unpredictable for me as the curator,” said Kateryna Radchenko, the project’s curator, during a discussion titled Beyond the Silence: The Socio-Political Dimension, held the weekend after the exhibition’s opening.

“Everyone was discovering the experiences of other communities while simultaneously rethinking their own trauma through this dialogue. I can’t objectively assess the result, but the process itself was incredibly productive.”

On March 21, the Beyond the Silence multimedia exhibition, a collaboration between the Odesa Photo Days Festival and Magnum Photos, opened at the Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv, Ukraine. (Source: Jam Factory Art Center)
On March 21, the Beyond the Silence multimedia exhibition, a collaboration between the Odesa Photo Days Festival and Magnum Photos, opened at the Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv, Ukraine. (Source: Jam Factory Art Center)

The public program has already included a curatorial tour with authors from Mexico and Ukraine, a portrait photography workshop by Daria Svertilova, and an artist talk by Mykhaylo Palinchak on Visual Storytelling in Times of Conflict.

The exhibition will run until June 1, with upcoming events featuring authors Rafał Milach (Poland, Magnum Photos), Antoine d’Agata (France, Magnum Photos), and Ira Lupu (Ukraine) in April and May.

Full list of authors:

  • Sasha Kurmaz (Ukraine)

  • Daniel Orlando Lara Garcia (Mexico)

  • Rafal Milach (Poland, Magnum Photos)

  • Ira Lupu (Ukraine)

  • Fawaz Oyediji (Nigeria)

  • Newsha Tavakolian (Iran, Magnum Photos)

  • Daria Svertilova (Ukraine)

  • Sai ▇▇▇ (Myanmar)

  • Antoine d’Agata (France, Magnum Photos)

  • Mykhaylo Palinchak (Ukraine)

  • Yadykar Ibraimov (Kazakhstan)

  • Thomas Dworzak (Germany, Magnum Photos)

On March 21, the Beyond the Silence multimedia exhibition, a collaboration between the Odesa Photo Days Festival and Magnum Photos, opened at the Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv, Ukraine. (Source: Jam Factory Art Center)
On March 21, the Beyond the Silence multimedia exhibition, a collaboration between the Odesa Photo Days Festival and Magnum Photos, opened at the Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv, Ukraine. (Source: Jam Factory Art Center)
On March 21, the Beyond the Silence multimedia exhibition, a collaboration between the Odesa Photo Days Festival and Magnum Photos, opened at the Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv, Ukraine. (Source: Jam Factory Art Center)
On March 21, the Beyond the Silence multimedia exhibition, a collaboration between the Odesa Photo Days Festival and Magnum Photos, opened at the Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv, Ukraine. (Source: Jam Factory Art Center)

Beyond the Silence is a collaborative project organized by Magnum Photos in partnership with the Odesa Photo Days Festival (Ukraine), Centro de las Artes San Agustín (Mexico), Africa Artists' Foundation (Nigeria), Vlast (Kazakhstan), and the Angkor Photo Festival & Workshops (Cambodia), with the support of Open Society Foundations and the Ukrainian Institute.

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Odesa Photo Days Festival is an international contemporary photography festival founded in 2015 as a response to the war in eastern Ukraine and the illegal annexation of Crimea. Since 24 February 2022, Odesa Photo Days has changed its focus: the festival in Odesa has been canceled, and now the team is working with Ukrainian photographers and the international community to build a cross-cultural dialogue and represent Ukrainian culture in the world.

Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices in Paris, New York City and London. Founded in 1947, Magnum represents some of the world’s most renowned photographers, maintaining its founding ideals and idiosyncratic mix of journalists, artists and storytellers.

Jam Factory Art Center, a contemporary art institution opened in November 2023, is housed in a revitalized neo-Gothic building that once served as a jam-producing factory. Through exhibitions, theatrical performances, musical events, educational programs, and community-oriented projects, the center engages visitors in creative dialogue and strives to enrich their experience and knowledge.