Culture of PR
Exhibition
Lionel Favre
Donetsk. More than Smoke
House on the Embankment
Serafimovicha st., 2, apt. 33
march 2015april 2015

A photography project by the Swiss artist Lionel Favre dedicated to modern Donetsk.

The Swiss artist Lionel Favre creates striking graphic artworks by redrawing old blueprints and building plans and «populating» them with people, animals, plants, machinery and all types of fantastic beings. In this way, the obsolete documents take on new life, trading their practical meaning for an aesthetic one.  In 2010, Favre spent several weeks in an artistic residence in Donetsk, taking away thousands of images and rolls of technical drafts. The recent events in Ukraine (which he views as an absolute disaster) pushed Favre to rethink his archive and create a project dedicated to the life of a peacefully developing city, the Donetsk that remains in the artist's memories. «Donetsk. More than Smoke» is a rare occasion of pacifist art: Favres's subject matter and characters include Cheburashka (the symbol of friendship), the babushka or grandmother (the inconspicuous hero of society) and the «yellow submarine» (another absolute symbol of peace).