You Shouldn’t Have To See This — Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei

Recontemporary presents, on the occasion of Artissima 2025, the exhibition You Shouldn’t Have To See This, a project by Ukrainian artists Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei, who have made the relationship between art and political activism the core of their artistic inquiry. First unveiled at La Biennale di Venezia (2024), the work now arrives in Turin, carrying with it the urgency of a reflection that intertwines testimony and visual experimentation.

Malashchuk and Khimei have played a crucial role in raising public awareness of the devastating effects of war and its deeper — often invisible — consequences for society.

At the heart of the exhibition lies the eponymous video installation, You Shouldn’t Have To See This. The silence enveloping the images — projected across six LED walls of varying sizes — generates a moment of empathy that is as intense as it is fragile: sleeping children, vulnerable bodies evoking peace and innocence. Yet the viewer’s gaze is never innocent; alongside tenderness arises a deep unease. The images depict Ukrainian children who were kidnapped and deported to Russia, later brought back home. It is a war crime, with estimates ranging from 20,000 to over one million cases since 2014.

The title of the work also alludes to the conflict inherent in images that, in the digital age, are constantly imposed upon us — wars, tragedies, and disasters we witness, willingly or not, through our screens. According to the artists, the aesthetic qualities of such images risk creating an illusion of participation, if not even a sense of complacency. From this perspective, every image is first and foremost evidence of a crime, and only secondarily — and only potentially — a work of art: a work that, in truth, should never have had to exist.

By engaging with this material, Malashchuk and Khimei lay bare the paradox of representing war. The strength of the project lies precisely in this tension: making visible what should not be seen, transforming testimony into a form of shared political awareness. In this way, You Shouldn’t Have To See This does more than denounce a crime — it restores to art its capacity to shape public discourse and to create a space for collective memory and cultural resistance.

Outside the venue, Recontemporary’s storefront window hosts View of the Temporarily Occupied Left Bank of the Kherson Region. Filmed on the banks of the Dnipro River, the work faces a territory still under occupation on the opposite shore. Here too, nothing happens — no visible action, no direct conflict. The occupation is perceived precisely in what remains unseen. The stillness of the landscape becomes an image of waiting and distance, where war manifests itself through absence.

Though different in form, the two works are deeply interconnected: they confront violence through what lies beyond the frame. They speak of bodies and territories made vulnerable by forces that act beneath the surface — often in the shadows — striking at identity, belonging, and the very possibility of growing up or inhabiting a place.

Special opening hours for Artissima: October 27, 28, 29, 30 — 3 PM to 7 PM, October 31, November 1 and 2 — 11 AM to 7 PM