'Violence unpunished': Kyiv Biennale examines the healing power of art after war and conflict

Warsaw's Museum of Modern Art is playing host to the sixth edition of the Kyiv Biennale entitled 'Near East, Far West'.

The show features works by artists from many European and Middle Eastern countries, all brought together to illustrate visions of how best to deal with the experience of war and conflict.

Vasily Cherepanin, one of the curators, told Euronews that revolutionary events in Maidan a decade ago were the spark for the Biennale.

"It was very important such a political moment, that a new historical era was just beginning, which in this sense was represented and stopped by Russia's war against Ukraine. Because it was right after Maidan that the occupation of Crimea started, so our idea was to sort of continue the Maidan in the cultural field."

"This is an exhibition that tries to show us not only the traumatic images of wars in the region, but tries to reveal the kind of systemic violence that makes these wars, this violence, still unpunished and still possible," explained Joanna Mytkowska, director of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (MSN Warsaw).

"It's very spectacular. It's big videos, installations, films, large, monumental objects. It is very pleasant to look at. It does not dazzle with images of war, it rather makes you think," she added.

A perfect description of Aykan Safoğlu's work, which appears to be a simple jigsaw puzzle... made up of 13,000 pieces.

"The image we see in the mosaic comes from Istanbul, from the railway station, Sirkeci, which used to be a stop of the Orient Express and also a place from which people, many immigrants, left Turkey to live in Germany in the future. The painting is therefore a faithful reproduction of the rosette in the waiting room at Sirkeci station. It is more or less the final image, in fact the last thing people saw on their way to Germany," explained Safoğlu.

Safoğlu encourages people to - just as the jigsaw puzzle requires - use their imagination to complete the picture of reality.

'Near East, Far West' is on now at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw until 18 January, 2026.