“Assertion of patriotism, faith, and confidence”

The photo exhibit of Den/The Day in Uzhhorod is over. According to the employees of the Zakarpattia Museum of Art, it had a huge success. The guard of the museum expositions Yan Malosh said that a lot of young people had seen the photos. The teachers of practically all schools of the city used the opportunity to arrange a kind of an out-of-school lesson of patriotism for senior students. “This event will have a long-term effect for the culture-artistic and social life of Uzhhorod,” considers director of Zakarpattia Bokshai Art Museum Franzysk ERFAN. “With its culture ‘interventions’ to various cities of Ukraine the newspaper Den is playing a consolidating role in the general state context, making a bright event of the life of the country an achievement of the whole nation. I was observing the reaction of people who came to see the photo exhibit at our museum. Most of them brought these events through their own hearts and souls and came here to reinforce their own impressions from those events of the past year that stirred our country.”

People Artist of Ukraine Volodymyr MYKYTA shared with Den: “It became clear at once that this exhibit presented highly artistic photo masters and you wouldn’t find any random works here. Every photo called to contemplations. I was deeply impressed by the photo where a little girl was looking uneasily from a car window at Maidan. You cannot see the Maidan, there is only a crumpled placard and anxiety in the eyes of the child. This composition had a fantastic psychological impact on me. Or another work, where the priest in the background of the Berkut ranks takes a stone up from the ground, as if he’s yelling: ‘God, forgive me, but I cannot stand this humiliation anymore!’ When you ponder over these moments, you understand why the people rose up. Or another photo – where the man asks a priest for blessing. Apparently, at normal conditions this person would never even thought about of any violence, but after going through these social shocks, he could not stay aside in the disturbed society. To have courage for such resolute steps, a person must experience extremely strong psychological shock.” “No less expressive is the photo where a girl says good bye to a soldier boyfriend who is probably going to the war. One photo captures the whole drama of the current young generation of Ukrainians,” Volodymyr says, “They should love, give birth to children, bring up the new generation, realize themselves in peaceful life, but they have to say good bye to each other, and only God knows whether it is forever or not. Photos depicting children are no less fantastic in terms of emotionality. There I simply feasted my eyes on the high professionalism of the masters. This photo exhibit gave me a lot of emotional impressions. Although many shots show the tragic moments of our days, it is not depressing. Vice versa, it is calling to action, internally mobilizes us to do good: raise children, rebuild the ruined villages, reinforce the faith in our compatriots that we will overcome everything and win. I want to express great gratitude to the Editor-in-Chief Larysa Ivshyna and entire team of Den, the organizers of the exhibit in Uzhhorod for their heroic work, for assertion of patriotism, faith, and confidence.”

The Uzhhorod visitors of the photo exhibit actively joined the voting for the best work. According to the employees of the museum, who were the counting commission, the residents of Uzhhorod liked the most the work Farewell by Den’s photo journalist Mykola Tymchenko (incidentally other audiences, for example, in Lviv, liked this photo, too). The second place went to The Date by Mykola Tymchenko again, and the third place – Father’s Courage by Ivan Liubysh-Kirdei.

DEN’S “RESERVE REGIMENT.” YOUNG PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY SCHOOLCHILDREN OF VARIOUS AGE, WERE SOME OF THE MOST ACTIVE AND “PROMISING” VISITORS OF OUR PHOTO EXHIBIT / Photo by Vasyl ILNYTSKY

Meanwhile, the Photo Exhibit “Den-2014” has already been assembled at the Museum Drohobychchyna. At the invitation of Ivan Franko Pedagogical Museum Den’s Days will start in the Subcarpathian town on June 4.

On Thursday at 1 p.m. the newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief Larysa Ivshyna will launch the exhibit “Den-2014” at the Palace of Arts of the Museum Drohobychchyna (38 Tarasa Shevchenka Street). Everyone in the museum is waiting for this event with great interest. The head of the museum Alla HLADUN said, “We are admirers and subscribers of Den. This newspaper is on my desk every day. In our opinion, it is the most serious and popular among people who are able to think, who are interested in deep information. This exhibit has a corresponding status for us. It presents the photos which captured the historical events of 2014. We had never had such a year in our young history. No doubt, these crucial and very tragic events have changed us, our lives, and Ukraine. Therefore your exposition is a social project which will evoke interest among the scholars, and many other citizens of our university city.” On the whole, Hladun said, “it is an honor for our museum to host your exhibit. We known that for the most part it is exhibited in the oblast centers, and it is very pleasant for us that Drohobych is now on this list. We are glad and we are getting ready!”