Give Me Tomorrow

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Zoia Laktionova, "Remember the smell of Mariupol (detail)," 2022

Courtesy of the artist.

Give Me Tomorrow features contemporary Ukrainian video art that translates trauma into creativity, salvation, medicine and a way forward: artists demanding a tomorrow for themselves and all Ukrainians through their work. Featuring Piotr Armianovski, Andrii Dostliev and Lia Dostlieva, Zoia Laktionova, Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei, Mariia Proshkovska, and Maria Stoianova. This video series will be exhibited on the MAG's atrium screens, just outside the gallery entrance.

This is the second exhibition organized by the Shcherbenko Art Centre with this title – the second exhibition where works are gathered that respond to Russia’s crimes in Ukraine. The first occurred in 2014, following Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. Back then, the curator of the project, Maryna Shcherbenko, wrote: “Young artists subtly feel the pulsation of social life, because they are aware of their purpose to change, awaken, and create. And today we present their works, which depict our emotions, thoughts, and impulses that we sometimes have difficulties facing.”

Ukrainian artists are gathering strength and doing their work, transforming trauma into creativity, or seeking salvation, medicine, a reason, and a goal to move forward in their creative endeavors. Some of them now believe that their art is helpless next to shelling and explosions. Now more than ever, however, there is a need for such work, created sincerely and openly. The artists featured here have experienced war, become its victims, escaped from it, and worked as volunteers, or witnessed traumatic events. The video artworks featured in the exhibition were created either during the war in the east of Ukraine has been raging since 2014, or since Russia's full-scale military operation that began in February 2022. And, unlike images taken by photojournalists, their work is not frightening. On the contrary – their artwork asserts their right to a tomorrow.