Eight women, eight stories, eight different perspectives on a war that has changed the lives of millions of Ukrainians over the past year.
The exhibition "Diary - 8 photographic diaries in wartime", which can be visited from today to 10 April at the Castle of San Michele in Cagliari, recounts suffering and fears through 139 images that show how everyday life has changed dramatically since 24 February 2022, the day of the invasion by the Russian army.
"We wanted to show the human drama from a more personal, emotional and psychological point of view without proposing the classic images of war", explains Anna Melnikova, president of the Ukrainian Women Photography Organization (UWPO), the association that organized the exhibition together to Orientare srl and the Department of Culture and Entertainment of the Municipality of Cagliari. «We showed what women have inside, and this is pure art».
Melnikova, co-curator of the exhibition, is moved to tell the project and the stories of the 8 women protagonists, who through these images did not want to just report the war, but above all to represent their interiority by focusing on the emotional power of photography.
"It is important to focus attention on such a topical issue one year after the outbreak of this tragedy a stone's throw from our house", says the city councilor for Culture and Entertainment Maria Dolores Picciau.
In Cagliari there is a large Ukrainian community which immediately mobilized together with the Sardinians to help their compatriots. And this exhibition will also serve to make a contribution: part of the proceeds from the tickets, in fact, will be donated to the Ukrainian population through the UWPO.
The honorary consul of Ukraine in Sardinia, Anthony Grande, thanks the Municipality of Cagliari, recalling that it was from here that the first Italian aid mission to Ukraine was launched. «Only 5 days after the outbreak of war, we left with two buses to respond to what was a desperate request for humanitarian aid a stone's throw from our home. I saw the war with my own eyes and I am grateful to this initiative which bears direct testimony to us».