“Good Evening We Are from Ukraine” follows a small community of Ukrainian women and children who have landed in Moorhaven, Devon, UK after being uprooted by Russia’s invasion. Photographer Frankie Mills has teamed up with Libraries Unlimited and Counterpoints Arts to deliver the work as part of Platforma Festival.

EXHIBITIONS

3rd – 14 October: Ivybridge Library

17 – 31 October: Paignton Library

FREE EVENTS

All welcome!

Ivybridge Library

Saturday 7 October 9am – 12.30pm: Activist Prints – Printmaking workshop with Anna Boland, suitable for families (FREE). Make your voice heard and try your hand at making an activist print with messages and thoughts about the theme of freedom and sanctuary and works in the exhibition.

Paignton Library

Saturday 21st October

10am-1pm: Workshop and Talk with photographer, Frankie Mills

When Ukrainian refugees first started to arrive in Moorhaven, a village on the foothills of the open moorland Dartmoor, it seemed impossible that the consequences of a single decision had reached some of Devon’s most rural and remote regions. For the first time since the blitz, households were choosing to open up their doors to strangers from a far corner of the world despite that many had voted to leave the European Union. Through those doors came people who would have never heard of Moorhaven had it not been for war – and now this unfamiliar place would have to be called home.

This project is about the need for purpose and meaningful relationships in the face of absolute loss. It is about viewing the environment from the perspective of an outsider when arrival is determined by war and chance. It is about holding onto who you are while adapting – or attempting to – an entirely alien place. It is about how people create meaning when the future is obscure.

This work has been made at a time where refugees have been deemed “illegal” based upon how they arrive to the UK. Abandoned places that are cut off from society have become the supplement homes for asylum seekers.

At a time when so many asylum seekers, even those on schemes like Afghan resettlement, are being left in temporary accommodation or homeless, a total of 129,300 Ukrainians have come to live in the homes of people across the country, an estimated 32,325 of which have now found their own independent homes.

This project documents what a functional asylum system could look like and how people fare within it. It is about our capacity to care for other people when we are given the incentive and financial aid to do so. It is about the experience of being a refugee when people are treated with dignity.

The title of this project are lyrics from a song that has become a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance within the country.

“Good Evening We Are From Ukraine” resonates strongly with Libraries Unlimited’s Vision. Their spaces are vital community hubs which run year-round programmes of cultural events and activities. Libraries Unlimited play a crucial role in creating tangible long-term change by inspiring participation in cultural activity, building knowledge and skills, and creating a more equitable, inclusive, and fair society for all. Collaborating on this project is one of the many building bricks Libraries Unlimited are putting in place to ensure their spaces are free, welcoming places of sanctuary.

During Platforma, 30 images will be shown at Paignton and Ivybridge library. The exhibition will be an opportunity to give a voice to members of the Ukrainian diaspora community and celebrate diversity within the southwest.

Frankie will be presenting and discussing the work as part of a group symposium this October at the Martin Parr Foundation, organised by Counterpoints Arts.

Part of the Platforma festival 2023, produced by Counterpoints Arts and partners across the South West of England.