On February 27, the War up Close Project team held one more event as part of its world tour dedicated to the anniversary of the full-scale invasion. We organised the immersive exhibition in Café Kyiv in Berlin with the support of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, United Help Ukraine, CFC Big Ideas, and Funberry.
Around 1,800 people attended the event in a day. The VR videos of the residential buildings and schools destroyed by Russians produced an impression on every visitor of the exhibition. We used the VR glasses to show the terrible things the occupants had done to our cities and towns in Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Kyiv regions.
The exhibition was opened by Oleksii Syvak, who made a very precise comment on what all the Ukrainians were fighting for:
“Almost sixty years ago, US President John F. Kennedy said in his speech on the stairs of the West Berlin Senate, ‘Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is “Ich bin ein Berliner.” Today’s battle for the future of the world of freedom is at the frontline in Ukraine. We are proud to call Ukrainians all the people who support the victory of freedom, democracy and human rights over the dictatorship, infinite impunity, who preserve the unity of our common European home today and for the future.”
The symbolic thing is that the cafe where the event was held was called “Moscow”, but the name was changed for “Kyiv” for several days to commemorate the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“It is a matter of freedom, Europe, safety and reconstruction,” the initiators of the campaign commented on their idea.
The virtual exhibitions in Paris and Washington have already been held as a part of the tour. The following events are scheduled: in Warsaw on 2 March and in Brussels on 4 March.
