Galerie nEUROPA

‘The whole world is a circus, and the people in it are clo(w)ns’

We often live and play a variety of social and emotional roles in everyday life. Different manifestations of these roles can unbalance a person’s psycho-emotional state. We often switch from one mask to another, sometimes forgetting to take one off and put on another. The war in Ukraine has created additional emotional barriers: new masks and the importance of being strong and psychologically stable in society. We imitate the processes of labour, interest, joy or sadness, despite our own grief or despair.

The photo exhibition ‘The Imitation Game’ explores the complexity of human emotions through the image of a clown – a symbol of joy and sadness at the same time. With his colourful make-up and broad smile, the clown appears cheerful and carefree at first glance. However, this mask can conceal a whole range of emotions – from deep sadness to genuine fear. The exhibition aims to make these hidden emotions visible by means of large-format portraits of people made up as clowns. The image of a clown emphasises the contrast between outward appearance and inner state, exaggerates the extreme states of human emotions and serves as a metaphor for the ‘masks’ that people often wear in everyday life.

All the characters in the exhibition are directly connected to the cultural and art space Underground Passage ‘Vagabundo’ in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk. Men and women, actors and art critics, artists and poets – everyone experiences the difficult times of war in their own way, but at the same time they are part of a living creative organism that reflects external impulses. Rostyslav Shpuk, co-organiser of this art space, explains: ‘Vagabundo is a place of artistic freedom…. indestructible freaks meet there – a special category of friends, people with an exaggerated presence, without whom everything is impossible, who constantly sharpen their sensibilities for you and turn every artistic event into a backstage experience – into something that is not a show, but rather a rehearsal for something bigger, something more permanent.’ These people – writers, artists, actors – have mastered public staging more than others, know the game of imitation and the price they pay for it.

‘The Imitation Game’ is an invitation to reflect on how we perceive others and how often our outer image does not match our inner feelings and that it is worth living every moment of life and smiling even in tears.

Text, idea and photos: Dmytro Petryna (UA)
Make-up: Ulyana Svarychevska (UA)
Curation: Jan Oelker (DE)

An exhibition of the Dresden gallery nEUROPA in cooperation with the art space Underground Passage ‘Vagabundo’ in Ivano-Frankivsk (UA)

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«.