Аrtist talk with photographer Polina Polikarpova

On May 27 at 18:30, an artist talk with photographer Polina Polikarpova will take place as part of the "What the Landscape Remembers" residency.

During the meeting, we will talk about photography as a method of exploring the urban environment. Polina will share her experience of observing cities through the practices of flânerie and photography, as well as her series "Absent-Present," which she worked on from 2019 to 2022.

In this series, Polina chooses to wander through the back alleys of Kyiv, her native Kharkiv, and other Ukrainian cities, discovering hidden paradises and unpopular historical landmarks. She captures them in a way that transforms them into surreal places from our dreams that never actually existed.

"I fell in love with the city of Dnipro back when I was at a residency in Kryvyi Rih in the summer of 2021, and we spent a single day passing through there. On land, the city strongly resembles my native Kharkiv, while its river and embankments remind me of Kyiv—the cities I have photographed the most."

Polina Polikarpova is an independent photographer from Kharkiv. She is the creator of the "Absent-Present" series and the photobook "Pretty Ghetto," dedicated to the vision of Kharkiv in the 2010s. Since 2022, she has focused more on photographic collaborations with representatives of the contemporary Ukrainian music scene and culture as a whole.

Admission is free. Location: Cinema, 1st floor.

Visual photo credit: Polina Polikarpova.

The "What the Landscape Remembers" residency is part of the capacity-building and networking program for local cultural actors "Heritage: Space for Work". This program is supported by the Partnership Fund for a Resilient Ukraine (PFRU), funded by the governments of the United Kingdom, Estonia, Canada, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, and Sweden.