Timeless: Contemporary Ukrainian Art in Times of War

The Skulpturensammlung (Sculpture Collection) and the Museum of Byzantine Art in the Bode Museum house objects from the 3rd to the 18th century. Despite historical distance and the Christian-influenced motifs, these representatives of European cultural history are often still of great topicality and social relevance today. The depictions and themes used here also serve as a basis and source of inspiration for current artistic creation in Ukraine. For this reason, one year after the beginning of the Russian war of aggression, the Bode-Museum invited ten Ukrainian artists to enter into a dialogue with selected works from its own collections.

Within the context of this project, religious art provides a powerful tool for illustrating the central issues that are being faced by European societies in the 21st century. While the collections of the Bode-Museum shed light upon situations of social conflict and their corresponding artistic references from pre-1800 Europe, contemporary Ukrainian art creatively interprets similar themes, while simultaneously maintaining a sense of historical continuity. Against the backdrop of the successive incursions mounted by Russian forces into Ukrainian state territory since 2014, the works presented in this exhibition – which were created between 2014 and 2022 – provide an evocative, emotional reflection of the drastically transformed life and turbulent spiritual landscape of a young European nation.

The artists involved in the exhibition are Serhii Druziaka, Oleg Gryshchenko, Alisa Lozhkina, Serhii Lytvynov, Sergii Radkevych, Oleksii Revika, Konstantin Sinitskiy, Maryna Solomennykova, Alla Sorochan, and Matvei Vaisberg.

Almost all of the artists involved currently reside in Ukraine. Due to the logistical difficulties posed by the current situation in terms of transporting their paintings, graphic artworks, and sculptures to Germany, these works are displayed in the exhibition as photographic reproductions. The artworks enter into dialogue with other existing works like the Schutzmantelmadonna (The Ravensburg Virgin of Mercy) by Michel Erhart (1480), Hans Leinberger’s Christus im Elend (Christ in Misery, c. 1525), the Schildträger (The Shield Bearers) by Tullio Lombardo (1480/1500), and the wooden high relief depicting the Liberation of a Besieged City (Egypt, 5th century).