“This story is not only about Chornobyl as a tragedy, but also about how memory survives” – A conversation with Maxim Dondyuk on his exhibition at Mai Manó House in Budapest
The exhibition Maxim Dondyuk: In the Zone of Oblivion – The Chornobyl Archives is open to the public at Mai Manó House from March 1 to May 17. The internationally acclaimed Ukrainian photographer and visual artist, born in 1983, has spent five years in the Exclusion Zone documenting the territory gradually reclaimed by nature. Over time, his focus shifted toward the documents left behind in houses, apartments, and various institutions—rolls of negatives, photographs, letters, and postcards. Dondyuk’s project, the Chornobyl Archive, currently comprises 20,000 items alongside his own photographs, from which the Budapest exhibition also presents a selection. On the occasion of the exhibition, we spoke with the artist.
