A Ukrainian artist is excited to showcase their work of queer love in Liverpool.
Lush Liverpool will host a four-week-long photo exhibit - a collaboration between LGBTQ+ Arts Festival, Homotopia and UKRAINEPRIDE - which will show the work of Arthur Vovchenko, a queer photographer and multi-disciplinary artist. Arthur, who is based in Ukraine, has been telling the stories of the lives of queer people during the war in Kyiv and Kharkiv.
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The activist has captured ten uniquely queer stories - each person’s narrative will be exhibited through five photographs, an accompanied text telling the individual’s story and a QR code for an audio description. The exhibition will be accompanied by a special sound design from Nastya Vogan.
Arthur told the ECHO: “It has always been important to talk about the visibility of the queer community, and it is even more important to speak up loudest when it is most difficult to do so.
“Our community knows well what it means to fight for our rights, we've been doing it for whole our lives. We have been fighting for love, for those who are dear to us, and now we continue to fight for our motherland.
“This is my first exhibition, a large project with UkrainePride, which had the main goal of making our fight visible, and our community's love for Ukraine.
“I am immensely grateful to our partners Homotopia for their support in the realisation of the most valuable project I have ever had the experience of working with. I cannot express in words the value of a positive response from the other side at the moment when you declare your existence.”
The work will be available to buy throughout the exhibition with all funds going to UKRAINEPRIDE’s ‘LGBTQ+ Ukraine Emergency Fund’ to help safeguard Queer Ukrainians affected by war.
Sofiia Lapina, the President of UKRAINEPRIDE NGO, added: "In recent years, the Ukrainian LGBTQ+ community has made considerable progress in protecting its rights and promoting its diversity.
"Now it is extremely important for us not to lose, but to preserve and multiply the gains. The exhibition tells about how in the darkest time queer Ukrainians remain themselves – this is a personal victory for each of them.
"The support we have received in partnership with Homotopia is unexpected and incredible for us, from the very beginning of the project to the exhibition. We hope to invite them to do another collaboration in Ukraine after we win.
For Ukraine, this project is another opportunity to speak with pride about its diversity, no matter what.”
The exhibition will take place from Thursday, April 20 until Thursday, May 18.
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