In search of Lenin Automatic translate

The international festival of contemporary photography PHOTOBOOKFEST 2018 presents the project “In Search of Lenin” by the Swiss photographer Niels Ackermann and the French journalist Sebastien Gobert. The exhibition will be held from April 20 to June 24 at the Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography.

In December 2013, Nils Akermann saw a monument to Lenin being demolished on Bessarabskaya Square in Kiev. What was it: public execution, legalized vandalism? Or the natural process of parting society with the past, updating and adjusting cultural and political codes? After the events of Euromaidan in Ukraine, the official process of decommunization, enshrined in decrees of the president, began. By 2015, the number of Ilyichs in the country was reduced by five times, and to date, not a single one has remained.

The project of Niels Ackermann and Sebastien Gober "In Search of Lenin" includes photographs of demolished statues of the leader. The authors found them in the backyards of museums, auctions, in private collections. Fragments were left from some, others were repainted, beheaded, smashed, thrown into industrial zones, forests, dumps. Some monuments were completely melted into Taras Bulba and Darth Vader.

After the "search of Lenin," the journalists published a photo book, including including interviews with local residents. Thus, Akermann and Gober made a portrait of modern Ukraine and reflected the contradictory and ambiguity of the "Leninopad".

The search for Lenin turned into a deep study of "the difficult situation that has developed in the country in relation to its past, and therefore, the present and the future." How to relate to the heritage of the USSR to residents of post-Soviet states? Follow the example of the Ukrainians and erase all reminders of Lenin, or, like Russia, go their own way in which the Soviet past merged with the present?

This is how Sebastien Gober comments on the upcoming exhibition in Moscow: “The project reflects the situation in Ukraine from different perspectives, and at the same time takes a neutral position. We hope that the exhibition will enable us to better understand each other and create a space for public discussion. I’m sure that we are able to build new bridges - at least, new communication channels - between countries, peoples and generations. ”

The project premiered in the summer of 2017 at the main European photo festival Les Rencontres d’Arles in Arles (France). The exhibition was a great success, and among its visitors was, among other things, French President Emmanuel Macron. Later, the project was presented in Switzerland, the UK, Lebanon, and in April 2018 the exhibition will open in Moscow as part of the PHOTOBOOKFEST festival.

During the exhibition, an excursion and a creative meeting with the authors, a round table, as well as a three-day master class for photographers by Nils Ackermann will take place.

The exhibition and educational program will be supported by the Swiss Cultural Council Pro Helvetia.

Niels Ackermann is a Swiss photojournalist and one of the founders of the Lundi13 photo agency with offices in Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchâtel and Kiev. Ackermann has been working for international media since 2007 and has received several awards for his work: second prize in the SwissPressPhotoAward nomination in 2010 and the GlobetrotterWorldPhotoAward in 2015. Since 2015, lives and works in Ukraine.

Sébastien Gobert is a French journalist and traveler, writer, researcher in the post-communist space. He received a master’s degree at the Central European University in Budapest, at the University of Strasbourg and Lille. Since 2011, he has been working in Ukraine, from there he has collaborated with French publications (Libération, RadioFrance International, LeMonde Diplomatique) and the Geneva newspaper TribunedeGenève, and also runs a blog called “News from the East. Stories from Ukraine and beyond. ” Winner of the Writingfor CEE 2013 Journalism Award and ICJF InternationalReportingContest 2013 Laureate.