Exhibition "Everything for Everybody"

On October 23 at 18:30, the Dnipro Center for Contemporary Culture will open the exhibition Everything for Everybody.

This exhibition is about archiving and memory. It raises questions about how archives come into being, who has access to them, and who controls the knowledge they preserve; what role an archive plays during wartime; and how archives can form unique testimonies of places that have disappeared or been destroyed.

Everything for Everybody grew out of reflections on two collections: the photographs of Franki Raffles at the University of St Andrews and the photographic archive of Mykola Bilokon, held by the Pokrovsk Historical Museum. Both Raffles and Bilokon focused on the communities with which they felt connected. Despite the distance in geography and context, their work shares common ground in documenting working-class life, gendered labour, and the shifting political landscape at the turn of an era.

These questions unfold against the backdrop of war. The Pokrovsk Historical Museum, which preserves Bilokon’s legacy, was evacuated, while the city itself is gradually turning into ruins. In this context, the exhibition’s title Everything for Everybody—a phrase from Raffles’ archive—reads both as a promise and a provocation: whose stories are we archiving today, and for whom?

The exhibition seeks to create a space where different artistic practices engage with archival materials, family histories, and documentary work. It also invites attention to other contexts and geographies confronting loss, the legacies of colonial pasts, and violence. What new archives of solidarity can we build, and what obstacles stand in the way?

Exhibition participants: Katya Buchatska, Sophia Gera and Kamila Yanar, Lia Dostlieva, Ola Yeriemieieva, Olesia Kashyvska, Yana Kononova, Tetiana Kostiuchenko, Elias Parvulesco, Adrian Pepe, Clemens Poole, Anhelina Rozhkov, Selma Selman, Tako Taal, Valeriia Fedorenko.

Curatorial group: Victoria Donovan, Kateryna Rusetska, Natasha Chychasova.

Project consultants: Jessica Gerschultz, Tetiana Kostiuchenko, Anhelina Rozhkova, Catherine Spencer, Alastair Scott.

Authors of texts for the works of Mykola Bilokon and Franki Raffles: Iryna Sklokina and Victoria Donovan. 

The exhibition will run until February 7, 2026.

Supported by: Department of Culture, Tourism and Cultural Heritage Preservation at the Pokrovsk City Council in Donetsk region; Pokrovsk Historical Museum; NGO ‘Pokrovsk Cultural Code +’; Center for Urban History of East Central Europe; Dnipro Center for Contemporary Culture; University of St Andrews; The New Democracy Fund, Danish Cultural Institute.

The exhibition forms part of the research project ‘The Worker Portrait in the Twentieth Century: Archives and Artistic Reflection’, supported by the British Council’s ‘Support for Cultural Activity in Ukraine with UK Involvement’ programme.

The exhibition will be held as part of the Kyiv Biennale 2025.