On May 2022, 5, Showa Women's University held a lecture "Dreaming Life: With Ukraine" by contemporary artist Victoria Solotinsky from Ukraine.Realized with the desire of the person himself to talk to young Japanese people when he comes to Japan for a charity solo exhibition.About 13 people gathered on the day, including Showa Women's University students, faculty and staff, Temple University Japan Campus (TUJ) students, and general participants.
Victoria Solotinsky was born in Mariupol, Ukraine. She left the Soviet Union with her family in 1990 and she earned a Master of Arts degree from New York University.She is currently based in Berlin and is internationally acclaimed as an artist / photographer with a multicultural background.She has held more than 23 exhibitions in 75 countries in Europe, North and South America and Asia, and has worked on numerous projects including publishing more than 90 books.
Solotinsky's great-grandparents played an important role as a revolutionary in Mariupol.It is said that the path that the family took after surviving the hunger that occurred under the rule of the former Soviet Union was the history of Ukraine itself.Her artistic activities were most influenced by her grandfather, who was a talent, artist, actor, stage manager, and photographer, and her memories of spending time with her grandfather in her developing room. I let her choose the path of her photography. Since 2009, she has photographed old men left behind in the marginal settlements around Kieu, Ukraine, with the theme of her identity of losing her hometown and the memories she inherited from her ancestors. I have tried artistic expression using photographs.
In the latter half of the lecture, we will mainly introduce the works exhibited in the charity solo exhibition "Dreaming Life: Together with Ukraine".Solotinsky, who stayed at Kieu's parents' house until a week before the invasion of Ukraine, compared the state of the city of Ukraine before and after the invasion and said, "I can't believe what's happening and I feel emotional. "It will be," he said with occasional tears.
The charity solo exhibition "Dreaming Life: Together with Ukraine" (sponsored by the Art Aid Executive Committee) was held at Gallery TOM (Shoto, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo) and solicited donations to Ukrainian children who were hit by the war. rice field.
