Ідентифікація – Identity – Identification

“Who is a person? How can you identify the characteristics of each person among numbers, QR codes and official data? How is person A different from person B? A few numbers, an electronic signature or something bigger and deeper? Many questions in times of pandemics and wars, when human existence turns into a series of symbols and the amount of information measured in bits.

Identification is a photographic project that offers the opportunity to explore one’s individuality and reflect on the meaning and purpose of one’s existence. People in photos, a combination of objects, elements – all this creates a matrix of the present and its interaction with each of us. This interaction reveals the individuality of each of us, shows our place on earth and forces us to return to the origins of our lives.”

The photo artist Dmytro Petryna initiated this exhibition under the Ukrainian title “Ідентифікація”, which can be translated as “identification”, but also as “identity”. Ultimately, there is an interaction between the two terms. Identification with reference persons, ideas, values, landscapes and things characterises our identity in the course of our lives and this in turn gives us orientation as to where we can or must forbid identification.

The photo club “Columb” from Ivano-Frankivsk in Ukraine is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2024 and is presenting itself for the second time in the Galerie nEUROPA after ten years with the exhibition “Ідентифікація – Identity – Identification”. The protagonists of “Columb” found very different approaches to approaching the questions of identification and identity photographically.

Alexandr Plaksin portrays internally displaced persons as a symbol of perseverance, hope and identification with oneself as an individual. Olga Kukush‘s collages open up a virtual space for communication with previous generations.

Denys Trofimov and Yulia Gomeliak deal with the relationship of the individual to artificial worlds that are created around us on the Internet, in social media or in the shop windows of modern consumer temples and challenge our dialogue on a daily basis.

Mariana Glynska, Dmytro Petryna and Yana Stefanyshyn take a more introverted approach in their search for inner balance in a world that is becoming increasingly unbalanced: what exactly is the nature of a person who is liberated from layers of social stereotypes? Dmytro Petryna sums up his intention in this search: “Be alone with nature, listen to the silence, look inside yourself! Find your ‘I’ in the midst of the chaos of numbers and codes, because you are HUMAN!”

Curation: Dmytro Petryna, Jan Oelker

Das Projekt wird gefördert durch das Staatsministerium für Soziales und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt. Diese Maßnahme wird mitfinanziert mit Steuermitteln auf Grundlage des vom Sächsischen Landtag beschlossenen Haushaltes im Rahmen des Förderprogramms »Wir für Sachsen«.