Images from Abroad solo exhibition of Lada Nakonechna

A kind of prologue to the exhibition is a photograph of an unknown river and its banks in eastern Ukraine. A footbridge and artificial water channel indicate human presence in the landscape. Upon closer inspection, elements of a graphic editor appear: a ruler at the top, and a hand-shaped cursor hovering over the trees—as if about to perform the “grab” action. It becomes clear this is a screen capture from the artist’s computer, immediately signaling her intention to manipulate images in the main exhibition.

The main section features a hand-drawn “framework” on the wall showing where artworks should hang. Before opening, Nakonechna installed all series included in the show on the same wall, then shaded the shadows cast by the gallery lighting in graphite. These captured shadows now serve as extra frames and markers, guiding the viewer where to hang the works. The works themselves are chosen from those lying on the floor, awaiting attention. While Nakonechna still dictates where the work should be placed (as artists typically do), she leaves the audience to decide what to hang and in what order. As art critic Phoebe Blatton writes, the “framework” is the fixed ground, while the works are shifting borders upon it[1]. The exhibition’s title, Images from Abroad, subtly reminds the Berlin viewer of their detachment from the Ukrainian lands depicted in Nakonechna’s work.

This detachment echoes the position of OSCE observers, who visited the Luhansk and Donetsk regions from 2014 after their partial occupation by Russian forces and the installation of puppet regimes. OSCE officials examining local maps appear in the series List of Domains. Nakonechna “cuts out” the maps, leaving numbered holes or voids, peered into by both officials and viewers. In Work on the Ground, these voids are replaced with Donbas steppe landscapes, where trees resemble (or perhaps are) explosions. In Occupation, she layers cartographic outlines of the two eastern Ukrainian regions onto cropped photos of trees and bushes, abstracted to the point of political neutrality. In Capture, she fills in the gaps of a photograph of a destroyed building with red, turning it into a “map” of seized territory. In Marking, color fills transform a landscape into a flag: one version for Donetsk Oblast, another for the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic. Only the colors remain—no other symbols—making the designation intentionally abstract.

These and other series focus on reworking photographs of land in a war-torn region. For some, it’s home—now lost. For most Berlin viewers, it’s simply an image from abroad. Nakonechna warns of this and invites a shift from detachment to engagement and critical thinking.

1.  Blatton, P. (2020, January 17). Images from abroad: Lada Nakonechna at Galerie EIGEN + ART. Ocula. https://ocula.com/magazine/insights/images-from-abroad-lada-nakonechna/​