Since the war started on February 24th Kharkiv governance announced blackout regime. Blackout was a popular practice during the WW2 and was aimed to hide military and civil objects from an enemy. It feels like blackout is the synonym for war. Dark is inside and outside . Every day I saw less and less light from the window of my home – people were running away from the war. The idea of suddenly being left alone in the city paralysed. Starting from 4th of March I managed to overcome the initial trauma and started to capture those rare lights. The idea gave me a hope. Every dark picture during this war is my pray for peace. The project is ongoing.
Victoria Likholyot
Wartime diary
About the Artist
Artist WebsiteVictoria Likholyot was born in Kharkiv in 1985. In 2007 she graduated from the School of Philosophy in V.N. Karazin University. After graduating from university, she taught philosophy and cultural studies at the Institute of Trade and Economics, and then decided to change her career, starred in one film and took up photography. She studied contemporary art at the School of Modern Art (Kyiv, Ukraine) and attended courses in conceptual photography by Roman Pyatkovka. Victoria Likholyot is member of Ukrainian Women Photographers Organization. She also taught the Feminist Art course at Karazin University (Kharkiv, Ukraine).
The main media in Victoria Likholyot’s artistic practice is photography. The artist’s area of interest is the quiet life of the hidden spaces of the external, internal and symbolic world, shown through the optics of a female gaze and based on personal experience. Among the topics that the artist touches are memory and time, death, and relationships. Victoria Likholyot has published in Bird in Flight magazines and exhibited in collective exhibitions in Ukraine, France and Germany. She lives and works in Kharkiv (Ukraine).
