Lutsk – The Lesia Ukrainka Volyn National University hosted The Day’s photo exhibit for the fifth time in its scientific library. The Day has many friends in Volyn, but the leading educational establishment in the region is a special partner. It embodies a function which The Day sees as crucial for regional universities: it is a monument of the cultural and intellectual life of the land. That is why the photo exhibit is highly anticipated here. Svitlana Krysak, methodologist of the university library and head of the “Sutsvittia” poetry studio, explains “You know beforehand that you will see something beautiful, interesting, and you will hear something smart from Larysa Ivshyna, and you will have food for your soul.”
Krysak wrote a detailed analysis of the photo exhibit in the guest book: “You want to stay longer near such works as Winter Fairy Tale by Ihor Davydenko because it evokes peace and silence, which we desperately lack in the modern life. You start wanting to dream and remember something dear to your heart. Kostiantyn Hryshyn’s Redemption of Sins is impressive. I am especially grateful for Yevhen Chorny’s Baptism, which I believe to be the best at the exhibit. All its fragments are meaningful: the tender hands of the priest that hold the baby and the calm, trustful eyes of the baby. This photo caught a very important moment of that person’s spiritual birth. Following The Day’s exhibit I want to call on us to be as trustful as children. Because this trustfulness is, unfortunately, forced out from our souls by our reality.”
“Volyn community needs such meetings like those held by The Day, and such social and cultural events as the photo exhibit, in order to see the farther horizons. Personally I am impressed by the uncommonness of common things every time. Each work emphasizes the value of the personality in terms of time, tunes you to what is positive, that which we lack in our everyday life. That is how the exhibit fulfills a truly noble and life-asserting mission,” says Larysa Semeniuk, academic secretary of the Volyn University.
A lot of visitors, among whom were not only students or employees of the university but also many people from the region, were impressed by the photo of Lina Kostenko. Krysak expressed the thoughts of those present: to call the work “Let’s Keep to a High Spiritual Level,” which the Ukrainians associate with Lina Kostenko’s life and work. Kostiantyn Bobryshchev’s Forgotten Melody won the people’s choice award in Volyn. The visitors also praised Viktor Hurniak’s Dirty Dancing and Veronika Borkovska’s Patient. It appears that the Volhynians, just like other Ukrainians, missed spirituality and cordiality both in life and art… That is what unites us.
