VALENTYN ODNOVIUN: Recently Added Galleries and Collections

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(VALENTYN ODNOVIUN) — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 16:33:06 GMT

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Imprint

(VALENTYN ODNOVIUN) — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 11:01:12 GMT

]]>The series was conducted in the former detention centre in Vilnius, Lithuania, and consists of the monitor, which is always (even when turned off from the electricity) showing images from 4 CCTV cameras placed on the detention centre's territory. The image on the monitor is created by burned pixels.
And four photographs that depict prison metal bunks with body "imprints" of detainees of the former detention centre. Their body movements erased paint on the surface of the bunks, leaving a trace of their presence.

PW44 - 2016 till present

(VALENTYN ODNOVIUN) — Sun, 12 Jan 2025 19:53:15 GMT

]]>The series of photographs was made in Warsaw, Poland, and presents the walls of the Church of the Holy Saviour, of the Church of the Minor Capuchins of Warsaw, and buildings with plastered bullet holes, which remain as traces of events that occurred during the Warsaw Uprising from August 1st until October 2nd of 1944 against Nazi German occupation.

This series demonstrates the possibilities of the context to evoke in the viewer's mind the image concealed in the work.

PW ARTIST BOOK

(VALENTYN ODNOVIUN) — Sat, 09 Oct 2021 16:45:40 GMT

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HORIZONS

(VALENTYN ODNOVIUN) — Sun, 20 Dec 2020 00:18:59 GMT

]]>From the period of 1939 until 1944 Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany. The main oppressive function was carried out by the Gestapo (Secret State Police of Nazi Germany).
After the end of WWII, Poland fell under a communist regime for more than 40 years.
The project “Horizons” presents photographs of the stairs leading to these basements of former Gestapo, NKVD, and later UB headquarters and prisons situated in different cities, which very often contained solitary prison cells, interrogation rooms, and rooms where executions were carried out between 1944 and 1956.
UB combined the punitive functions and functions of the special secret services. The NKVD and UB spied on the population, fought dissidents, and imprisoned and eliminated objectionable “unwanted” people.
After 1956, UB was replaced with SB (Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs), which operated until 1989.

Each stair step and stairway accompanied with a title and a short text about the actual prison where it was photographed in a form of a separate catalog aside from the actual photographs.

TRACES OF MEMORY [ɡəˈʃtaːpo] - 2016

(VALENTYN ODNOVIUN) — Sun, 20 Dec 2020 00:13:09 GMT

]]>Walls of the Berlin School of Industrial Arts and Crafts basement became the Gestapo prison and place of unspeakable crimes, when Secret State Police Office moved into the building in 1933. 39 cells became a place for Jewish people, opponents of regime and other objectionable “unwanted” persons.
From 1933 to 1945, approximately 15,000 persons were held in the “house prison” at the Gestapo headquarters.
This project shows parts of the walls from the underground rooms of the Gestapo in Berlin, which are witnesses to the inhumanity carried out against entire peoples and which carry within themselves the memory of those events.
The demonstration of the project implemented with the help of the projecting slideshow of 39 images (positive slides projected with use of analog projector) of the tiles from the basement "Gestapo," that are symbolizes 39 cells and stands as witnesses of inhumanity done to nations and bear the memory about this horrifying facts of our history.
The project accompanied with a text taken from the Julius Fučik's book: «Notes from the Gallows», where he recalled the comparison of the rooms for those under investigation with a movie theater.

Exhibition of the PW44 project at the Prospekto Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2020

(VALENTYN ODNOVIUN) — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 16:34:59 GMT

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IX

(VALENTYN ODNOVIUN) — Tue, 24 Dec 2019 15:32:06 GMT

SURVEILLANCE (HIDDEN)

(VALENTYN ODNOVIUN) — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 12:52:24 GMT

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SURVEILLANCE

(VALENTYN ODNOVIUN) — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 11:04:28 GMT

]]>The project consists of photographs of the walking yard and prison cell door spyholes in former KGB prisons in Baltic States and Ukraine, Stasi remand prison in East Berlin, Germany, former UB headquarters in Poznan and MBP (UB) Remand Prison for prisoners of war and political prisoners in Warsaw, Poland.

Main task of the State Security agencies was spying on the population, fight dissidents, imprison and eliminate objectionable “unwanted” people.
Their prison cells became a place for political prisoners and other “unwanted” people for their dissent activities against the system. The same places were used for similar purposes by different oppressive systems.
All oppressive systems use the same methods building on the knowledge of other such regimes.
With time, surveillance taking new forms, but the main essence remains. Total physical and mind control of society.

The actual work call into question the relation between what we see and what we perceive in advance of the act of recognition. These photographs emphasize the borders not only of human perception, but the border where the consequences of human action meet reason.

For me, a photograph is more a field that is open for interpretation than a representation. Therefore, it can evoke a paradox in our perception of what it is trying to convey. If we consider this interplay as a liberation from rigid ideologies – permitting the creation of something new – it can broaden our perception and create and open up new horizons, through its ability to overtake our reality.

A spyhole is a detail. Spyhole is a very informative object. A lens through which the warden looked at people inside of the prison cell or walking yard. It is one of the visual communicative channels which obscured the personality of a prisoner into an object of surveillance. Reminding of the everyday life of people that were on both sides of it.

Photographs, presented here, are both documentary and subjective at the same time. They embody real traces of events, objects and memories. And they serve as platforms for imagining these events, objects and memories in more interpretative form. They are a part of our surrounding and of our logic and of what makes sense when we put them together.

KGB (Committee for State Security,) was the main security agency for the Soviet Union till its collapse in 1991.
Stasi (Ministry for State Security,) was the official state security service of East Germany which was part of the Soviet bloc until reunification of Germany in 1990.
UB (Department of Security) Combined the punitive functions and functions of special secret services between 1944-1956. After de-stalinization was renamed to SB (Security Service).

THE PROCESS - 2018

(VALENTYN ODNOVIUN) — Sat, 29 Dec 2018 20:43:33 GMT

]]>What are we looking at, when dealing with the past?
The project shows photographed pieces of discarded photo paper which were found in the former KGB “Patarei” prison photography darkroom in Tallinn, Estonia.
Photography in the context of KGB prisons was mainly used as a documenting tool and was very controlled, capturing the subject, and recasting him as an object in the service of the prison system. Prisoners in the Soviet secret police facilities were photographed on a single piece of photographic paper which showed them both facing the camera and in profile. The pieces of photo paper shown in this installation were not used for such purpose; rather, they were left discarded after the prison was closed and “processed” by the natural light through the window in an abandoned facility formerly operated by a government that ceased to exist.

Project consist of 38 prints sized 18x24cm

INVESTIGATION - 2014

(VALENTYN ODNOVIUN) — Fri, 28 Dec 2018 15:12:45 GMT

]]>The photographs of drips and spatters on a wall shows how the image can become evidence of an event and create a paradoxical perception of concrete perceived as abstract and the abstract perceived as concrete. Vilnius, Lithuania, 2014-2016
3 photographs sized 100x64cm, of drips and spatters on a wall and trace/evidence material table.

COVER2

(VALENTYN ODNOVIUN) — Mon, 14 May 2018 20:36:24 GMT

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EVERYDAY ABSTRACT

(VALENTYN ODNOVIUN) — Sat, 19 Aug 2017 17:37:02 GMT

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INSCRIPTION ON BILLBOARD SAYS: "INFORMATION"

(VALENTYN ODNOVIUN) — Sun, 21 Jun 2015 23:13:41 GMT

"STREET PHOTOGRAPHY"

(VALENTYN ODNOVIUN) — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 10:43:38 GMT

IN FRONT OF THE WALL

(VALENTYN ODNOVIUN) — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 10:43:17 GMT