Time & Location
Apr 10, 2025, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Budapest, Budapest, Bartók Béla út 37, 1114 Hungary
About the event
Between April 10 and 23, 2025, the Three Weeks Gallery will host the exhibition “War Tattoos” by Ukrainian photographer Serhii MELNYCHENKO.
The exhibition is part of the official programme of the Budapest Photo Festival 2025.
Serhii Melnychenko (b. 1991) is a renowned Ukrainian photographer, founder of the MYPH conceptual and art photography school, and a member of both the Ukrainian Photographic Alternative (UPHA) and the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPP). He was the first Ukrainian to win the prestigious Leica Oskar Barnack Award Newcomer in Berlin in 2017. His works have been showcased in more than 200 solo and group exhibitions, art fairs, and festivals worldwide. He is also the author of 12 photobooks.
The “War Tattoos” project, launched by Melnychenko in the spring of 2023, is a black-and-white photo series featuring subjects—mostly the photographer’s friends and family—posing in front of full-size war footage projected onto them. Through this process, the artist documents the visual imprint of painful memories, feelings, and emotions—not only those of the people in the photographs but of the entire country.
Each participant chooses their own image—the one that hit the hardest, caused the deepest pain, and left an indelible mark on their memory. Making such a choice, however, is an almost unbearably difficult task. Every Ukrainian has endured so many horrifying moments during the war that it is nearly impossible to select the “worst.”
The war images are projected onto the subjects’ bodies and faces, creating a new layer—a virtual “tattoo” that remains with them forever. There are thousands, tens of thousands, even millions of Ukrainians just like them. Each one carries their own story, their own pain, their own war scars.
“War Tattoos” is more than just a photo project. It is a visual memory that speaks the language of light and shadow.
When asked what “tattoo” he would choose for himself, Serhii admits that he is not yet ready to make that decision. Most likely, it would be an image of the house in his hometown of Mykolaiv, where in September 2022 a Russian missile killed his girlfriend Kseniia and his mother while they were sleeping. “Mentally, I’m not ready to face that photo yet. I need to gather my strength, and that is not easy,” the photographer says.
The “War Tattoos” series does not simply present individual stories—it speaks to the shared pain of a nation, helping viewers more deeply feel the dreadful reality in which Ukrainians have been living for more than three years due to Russian aggression.
The uniqueness of the project lies in how it conveys emotion—not through dry documentary photography, but through powerful storytelling that merges conceptual and artistic photography.
Each frame is the story of one person—and at the same time, a mirror of millions. Today, every Ukrainian bears a “war tattoo.”
Opening speakers:
Fedir Shandor, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Hungary
Rita Somosi, Artistic Director of the Budapest Photo Festival
Andrea Bódis, Owner of the Three Weeks Gallery
The exhibition is supported by the Honorary Consulate of Ukraine in Siófok.
The exhibition will be on view until April 23, 2025.