Modern Freedom Exhibition in New York: Ukrainian Artists on War and Freedom

About the Modern Freedom Exhibition

The Modern Freedom exhibition explores the legacy of 20th-century experience under totalitarian regimes in Central and Eastern Europe, the enduring aspiration for freedom, and the richness of cultures that remained hidden behind the “Iron Curtain” for decades. At the same time, it addresses the contemporary transformations of the region and its further development.

Presenting both established artists from various artistic movements and powerful voices of the younger generation, the exhibition creates a unique space for reflection in New York. At a pivotal moment in the modern world — amid rising tensions and conflicts — the statements embedded in these works serve simultaneously as a warning and a source of inspiration.

The exhibition will be held at the newly opened Pilecki Institute USA in Lower Manhattan at 92 Greenwich Street — in a building that previously housed the first September 11 museum, near Ground Zero, Wall Street, leading museums, and the route to the Statue of Liberty.

The Pilecki Institute USA is a cultural and educational center dedicated to illuminating the history of Poland and Eastern Europe in the 20th century, and to broadening American understanding of a region whose experience largely shaped the modern world. Through academic, cultural, and diplomatic initiatives, as well as international partnerships, the Institute serves as a platform for strengthening Poland’s international presence and its role in the contemporary world.

Organizers: Pilecki Institute, University of Ostrava.

Partners: Polish National Foundation, GON Contemporary, RESTORE fx, FUTUREUM, SOBIC, Pylyp Orlyk Foundation, Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Humanitarian and Information Policy, Odesa National Fine Arts Museum, WYSPA Foundation, Sokolowsko.org, Style Renovations.

The exhibition features artists from Poland and Central and Eastern European countries, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Germany, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Bulgaria, and Lithuania. The Ukrainian section presents works by artists who use photography, installation, video art, textile, painting, performance, and audiovisual practices to address war, loss, memory, and the experience of life under Russian aggression.

Concept: Memory / Tremor / Freedom

The MODERN FREEDOM exhibition draws on the profound experience of the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe, shaped by war trauma and the violence of 20th-century totalitarian regimes — an experience that continues to resonate across generations. It tells the story of human vulnerability and fear, but also of courage and the indomitable search for truth.

The exhibition does not treat art as a finished and final form, but rather as part of an ongoing, authentic narrative. Objects, sculptures, installations, drawings, paintings, films, and texts here do not merely illustrate identity — they become visible manifestations of processes unfolding at the intersection of memory, existential tension, and aspiration.

Central and Eastern Europe — understood here as a laboratory of pain and imagination — emerges as a space from which new ways of thinking about freedom can be born. The exhibition’s curators — Piotr Franaszek, Tomáš Koudela, and Wojtek Radtke — construct the narrative through three thematic dimensions: Memory / Tremor / Freedom.

Ukrainian Artists at the Exhibition

Among the Ukrainian participants:

— Sofia Kozlova with the project “Lines of Horizons” (2025) — a series of 20 photocollages based on digital photographic images prepared for printing, each 23 × 43 cm.

— Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei with the work “Explosions near the Museum” (2023) — an audiovisual installation and short film of 13 minutes 38 seconds, presented in digital video and sound format.

— Lia Dostlieva and Andrii Dostliev with the work “Licking the Wounds of War” (2016–2021) — a long-duration performance with photo documentation and photocollage based on digital photographic images.

— Zhanna Kadyrova with the work “Palianytsia” (2022) — a series of 24 objects made from river stones, carved.

— Krystyna Melnyk with the works “Angel of History” (2022) and “Crucified” (2022) — large-scale canvases, oil on canvas, 175 × 125 cm.

— Natalia Lisova with the works “Indifferent Space” (2022) and “Silent Space” (2024), created in oil painting technique.

— Serhiy Petliuk with the kinetic video installation “When the Fog Clears” (2016), combining five Full HD videos, metal structures with rotating mechanisms, video projectors, and media players.

— Dasha Chechushkova with the work “Mara” from the series “Book of Fire” (2022) — a textile installation, 600 × 150 cm.

Exhibition Participants

Paweł Althamer (Poland) / Bogusław Bachorczyk (Poland) / Anna Baumgart (Poland) / Bożena Biskupska (Poland) / Dobrava Borkala (Poland) / Diana Fidler (Poland) / Dariusz Fodczuk (Poland) / Krzysztof Franaszek (Poland) / Elżbieta Goldman (Poland) / Andreas Guskos (Poland) / Izabella Gustowska (Poland) / Zuzanna Janin (Poland) / Katarzyna Józefowicz (Poland) / Robert Kaja (Poland) / Grzegorz Klaman (Poland) / Paweł Kowalewski (Poland) / Katarzyna Kozyra (Poland) / Robert Kuśmirowski (Poland) / Dominik Lejman (Poland) / Zbigniew Libera (Poland) / Arkadiusz Marcinkowski (Poland) / Honorata Martin (Poland) / Chris Niedenthal (Poland) / Urszula Pięgończuk (Poland) / Wojtek Radtke (Poland) / Joanna Rajkowska (Poland) / Marta Romankiv (Ukraine/Poland) / Jacek Staniszewski (Poland) / Łukasz Surowiec (Poland) / Katarzyna Szarek (Poland) / Maciej Świeszewski (Poland) / Zsolt Bodoni (Hungary, Romania) / Tereza Čapandová (Czech Republic) / Jiří Černický (Czech Republic) / Dasha Chechushkova (Ukraine) / Andrii Dostliev and Lia Dostlieva (Ukraine) / Andrei Dureika (Belarus) / Zsolt Ferenczi (Hungary) / Dušan Fischer (Slovenia) / Jernej Forbici (Slovenia) / Pavel Forman (Czech Republic) / Viktor Frešo (Slovakia) / Vladimír Havlík (Czech Republic) / John Isaacs (UK, Germany) / Pravdolyub Ivanov (Bulgaria) / Martin Juef (Germany) / Zhanna Kadyrova (Ukraine) / Roman Khimei (Lithuania) and Yarema Malashchuk (Ukraine) / Martin Kocourek (Czech Republic) / Tomáš Koudela (Czech Republic) / František Kowolowski (Czech Republic) / Sofia Kozlova (Ukraine) / Marek Kvetan (Slovakia) / Natalia Lisova (Ukraine) / Petr Lysáček (Czech Republic) / Marcel Máliš (Slovakia) / Barbora Mastrlová (Czech Republic) / Krystyna Melnyk (Ukraine) / David Možný (Czech Republic) / Libor Novotný (Czech Republic) / Serhiy Petliuk (Ukraine) / Petr Sadovský (Czech Republic) / Nina E. Schönefeld (Germany) / Jana Shostak (Belarus) / Marek Šovanec (Czech Republic, Canada) / Helena Sequens (Czech Republic) / Antanina Slobodchikova (Belarus) / Olena Steiner (Czech Republic, Austria) / Wolfgang Stiller (Germany) / David Straus (Czech Republic, Canada) / Ivo Sumec (Czech Republic) / Jiří Surůvka (Czech Republic) / Kęstutis Švirnelis (Lithuania) / Ivana Štencl (Czech Republic) / Alexander Tiney (Moldova) / Dan Trantina (Czech Republic) / Niko Tsetskhladze (Georgia) / Mike Wolf (Germany) / Iliko Zautashvili (Georgia)

Public Program and Significance

In addition to the exhibition itself, Modern Freedom will be accompanied by an extensive public program: conferences, lectures, presentations, panel discussions, auctions, and performances dedicated to questions of freedom, historical memory, culture, and responsibility.

In the context of the full-scale war against Ukraine, cultural diplomacy remains one of the key tools for conveying the truth about Ukraine, its history, values, and contemporary experience to the international community. As we previously reported, the Pylyp Orlyk Foundation has already participated in similar cultural initiatives in Central Europe.

The staging of the international Modern Freedom exhibition in New York — one of the world’s leading cultural and diplomatic centers, and the city hosting the United Nations — creates a unique opportunity to strengthen Ukraine’s international visibility and integrate the Ukrainian artistic narrative into the global discourse on freedom, memory, and responsibility.