Shcherbenko Art Centre

Exhibition Project by Oleg Dimov

«Words Just Louder than the Night»

at the Ukrainian House

June 5–30, 2024

«Words Just Louder than the Night» is a project by Odesa artist Oleg Dimov, in which he offers a view of the living environment of Ukrainians through the prism of his own visual practice. The exhibition is a key part of the Ukrainian House’s program to present contemporary Ukrainian photography as an influential tool for documenting and artistically interpreting reality.

The project brings together photos from the series «Another Landscape,» «Night,» «Morning,» «Stains,» and «The Time When I’m Not Home.» This selection is not accidental. The artist began working on «Another Landscape» before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and only returned to it later. The series «Night,» «Morning,» «Stains,» and «The Time When I’m Not Home,» created between 2022 and 2024, became a logical continuation of both the contextual line and the aesthetic forms and techniques the artist had previously discovered. By capturing seemingly random moments from the flow of life, Oleg Dimov reveals a clear pattern: disconnection, isolation, and loneliness are the recurring themes of the exhibition project.

The key series are «Another Landscape» and «Night.» The former dramatically outlines the sea boundary of the city. As the author emphasizes, the concepts of «edge,» «border,» and «line» have acquired new meanings, now associated with anticipation, fear, and emptiness. The sea, deliberately removed from the beaches in «Another Landscape,» indicates the danger from its side. This pressure is particularly felt by the residents of Odesa: the city is on the edge, the city is under threat of destruction. The «Night» series takes a step inside the city. «Night» is a cluster of houses resembling honeycombs but devoid of the shimmering movement of life, everything in them seems frozen in anxious anticipation. This tension is even more noticeable in the images with people. According to the artist, «Many people today have the same courage as buildings that cannot pack their bags and leave the country at war. These buildings are left only with waiting, waiting for the probable inevitability, for instance, an explosion.»

Dimov’s deep and complex reflections are aimed at understanding the fundamental bases of human existence, such as the meaning of life, choice, freedom, and mortality. «Although the photographs in the project are collected from different series by the artist, they are united by a common idea and the same state. The series seem to flow into one another, forming a single narrative. Time in the project ‘Words Just Louder than the Night’ is perceived as a continuous flow — from the past through the present to the future. The awareness of the duration of time manifests and emphasizes such important values of our existence as the preservation of memory, traditions, and cultural code and their transmission from generation to generation,» says the project’s curator, Maryna Shcherbenko.

The exhibition opening will take place on June 5, 2024, at 6:00 PM.

Exhibition Curator: Maryna Shcherbenko.

Organizers: National Center «Ukrainian House,» Shcherbenko Art Centre.

Project Partners: JSC «Oschadbank,» Visa.

Working Hours: Tuesday — Sunday: 11:00 AM — 7:00 PM, Monday — closed.

Admission with a ticket to the Ukrainian House exhibition «Protagonists. Picturesque Reserve / Paris Commune»: full — 100 UAH, discounted — 50 UAH (for schoolchildren and students).

Free admission for:

pensioners, children under 7 years old, persons with disabilities of groups 1–2, participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the Chornobyl disaster, combatants, ATO participants and their families, conscripted soldiers, museum workers, members of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine, holders of CIMAM, ICOM, AICA membership cards (with valid IDs).

Additional Information

Oleg Dimov is a Ukrainian artist and photographer. Born in 1986 in Balta, Odesa region. Graduated from the Grekov Odesa Art School. He works in the fields of conceptual and minimalist photography. Laureate of the special prize for Young Ukrainian Artists MUHi 2017. His works are in the collections of the Odesa National Art Museum and the Museum of Modern Art of Odesa. He lives and works in Odesa.

Maryna Shcherbenko is a curator of contemporary art exhibitions, founder of Shcherbenko Art Centre, the Young Ukrainian Artists MUHi competition, and ARTUP Store.

Shcherbenko Art Centre is a cultural institution in Kyiv that focuses on art as a means of social change, working with exhibitions and discussions on current socio-critical topics and supporting young artists through project practices and the MUHi competition.