Coming of Age Amidst War //Ukrainian Portraits

Guided Tour Throuh the Exhibition

In English

Exhibition Show Room at the
Bibliotheca Albertina
Tuesday, March 10
2PM

Free of charge. No prior registration necessary.

This double exhibition combines two photographic perspectives on Russia's war against Ukraine: an exhibition from Ukraine and a Leipzig-based photo project about Ukrainians who have found refuge here. Together, they offer a poignant look at coming of age in a state of emergency and continuing life after fleeing. 

Coming of Age Amidst War, curated by Irynka Hromotska (Kyiv Independent), shows works by ten Ukrainian photographers who document how young people in Ukraine shape their everyday lives amid bombardment, loss, and constant uncertainty. The images are both testimonies of vulnerability and powerful self-assertion.
Ukrainian Portraits, photographed by Sophie Meuresch and curated by the German-American Institute Saxony, focuses on Ukrainians in Leipzig. The exhibition brings together portraits of the same people from two different points in time: photographs from 2022, shortly after their flight, and new photographs from 2025, showing how their lives have developed three years later. They tell of new opportunities, ongoing challenges, and the traces of war that remain despite a newfound home.

Taken together, the exhibition creates a dialogue between there and here: between youth in war and everyday life in exile, between the reality in Ukraine and the lives of those who have made Leipzig their home. The exhibition shows how people from a broken world are shaping their future.

The exhibition was created in cooperation with the Leipzig University Library and the America House Lviv. It was made possible by funding from the state of Saxony and the German Foreign Office.