Reverse Motion. Diaries — a solo exhibition by Ruslana Kliuchko at the Mala Gallery of the Mystetskyi Arsenal
On January 15 at 5:00 PM, the Mala Gallery will open a solo exhibition by contemporary artist and photographer Ruslana Kliuchko — Reverse Motion. Diaries.
The exhibition addresses the experience of non/returning — a condition that has increasingly become part of everyday life for Ukrainians during wartime. Through photography, graphic works, and video pieces presented at the Mala Gallery, Ruslana Kliuchko explores movement between memory and reality, between a place that exists physically and one that is preserved in personal archives and recollections.
Many of the artist’s projects become a kind of love letter to the town of Khutir-Mykhailivskyi in the Sumy Oblast, located just 10 kilometers from the Russian border. This is Ruslana’s hometown, to which she continues to return despite constant risks. This reverse motion becomes a way of returning to oneself and an opportunity to dwell in a space that exists in a state of anticipation of catastrophe.
“Reverse Motion. Diaries is Ruslana Kliuchko’s exhibition about the act of return in the face of the risk of final loss. The artist documents her hometown of Khutir-Mykhailivskyi, on the borderlands of the Sumy Oblast, as a place of fragile balance between presence and disappearance. Here, nature, animals, and the silence of the grey-zone landscape become co-participants in the impact of war, while the reverse movement back and forth emerges as the only form of resistance to non-return — a way of staying with a place even as it slips away,” emphasizes curator Vita Kotyk.
More about the exhibition can be found on the project page.
Ruslana Kliuchko (born 2002, Khutir-Mykhailivskyi, formerly Druzhba, Sumy Oblast) is an artist, photographer, and a member of the MYPH community. Her work centres on themes of memory, landscape, and emotional and sensory experience. Ruslana works with graphic techniques, photography, art books, objects, and installation. She delves into local context and family archives, exploring the impact of war on the environment. She received a master’s degree in Free Graphics, Book Design, and Illustration from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in 2024. She lives and works in Kyiv.
Vita Kotyk (born 1998, Romny, Sumy Oblast) is an independent curator, researcher, cultural manager, and writer. She is the coordinator of Garage33 Gallery-Shelter, the curator of The Permanent Home of Displacement residency programme (2025, G33), the curator of the project and the series of exhibitions It’s love, darling (2025, Kyiv, Lviv), the co-curator of Ilya Todurkin’s exhibition Preparing for Loss (2024, The Naked Room) and Yuriy Bolsa’s exhibition Chervonohrad P.1 (2024, M17 CAC). Her research focuses on the formation of communities within cultural and artistic interactions. She lives and works in Kyiv.
Curator: Vita Kotyk
Project manager: Anastasiia Garazd
Translation: Burshtyna Tereshchenko
The exhibition Reverse Motion. Diaries will last until February 15, 2026,
in the Mala Gallery of the Mystetskyi Arsenal (Ivana Mazepy St., 28)
Working hours: Wednesday to Sunday, from 12:00 to 19:00
Free admission
❗ We care about everyone’s safety, so in case of an air raid alert, the exhibition will be closed. At this time, you can go to the nearest shelter. The exhibition will start working after the end of an air raid alert.