December 7, 2025, Barbara Baryzewska StudioThe exhibition opens “Again. Never Again”Ukrainian artists Vlada Ralko and Volodymyr Budnikov. The curator of the exhibition is Andriy Dostlev.
Within the exposition will be presented series “Lviv Diary”Vladi Rálko and “Time of War”Vladimir Budnikov, created by artists after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The works reflect the everyday experiences of war and the search for an artistic language capable of speaking about the new horrors of the present. Below is the curatorial text of Andrei Dostlev:
The slogan “Never Again” emerged after World War II as a response to the previous atrocities of the Holocaust and the war itself. A simple and concise message, a memorial to the past and a reminder to future generations that they must do everything possible so that such horrors never happen again. Eighty years have passed since the end of World War II, and the very fact that so many people still feel the urgent need to remind the world of this message — to publish texts, to make speeches, to create images, to write poetry (contrary to Adorno's predictions) — says something about us all. Something deeply sad, as if we as human beings ultimately, heck, just failed.
Both Vlada Ralko's “Lviv Diary” series and Volodymyr Budnikov's “Time of War” were launched in 2022, after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, as an immediate and inevitable response to a new level of horrors inflicted on the Ukrainian population. Artists carefully recorded their emotional responses to war, as many artists did to them in response to the wars they witnessed. Especially for that war, after which it should be possible “never again”. And yet, here we are again.
“It is the duty and conscience of the artist to speak his own language. I make these images during the war because I don't want to be mute,” Vlada writes in the text accompanying her series “Lviv Diary”. “Russia is constantly raping the dictionary because a Soviet person should not have his own words,” she adds. And Vladimir continues in his text: “How to define the evil that tempts people until all human beings die in them?”
Both artists are actively searching for the right words, definitions, and language goals that can tell about new daily horrors — the very ones from which the call “Never Again” should protect. An incredibly bold, but perhaps also futile aspiration that still remains extremely attractive.
The exhibition will last until January 1, 2025. “Again. Never Again opens in parallel with another group exhibition “A Possible Home”, curated by Zofia Nych. Vlada Ralko and Vladimir Budnikov also participate in this exhibition, which opens on December 6 at Stary rynek 23/1.
The project is implemented with the support of the German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs within the framework of the 2025 program for the development of civil society in the Eastern Partnership countries.
