It is always nice to meet Czernowitzers in Czernowitz (Chernivtsi) – old and young! Stories are exchanged, old stories, new stories, wishes and hopes for the future.
From left to right: Janne, volunteer of Action Reconciliation Service for Peace, Mykola Kushnir, Director of the Jewish Museum, Arthur Rindner and his girlfriend Rina, Edgar Hauster and I.
Zurich Lab, a Swiss based institute that wants “psychoanalysis to meet the streets”, has published an essay of mine about my Ukraine trip in February. I am aware that some of the theses in the essay are controversial for some readers. However, I believe there are necessary discussions about history, remembrance and identity. Without it there is no self-confident future – just conspiracy theories.
My journey in February through Western Ukraine – through Galicia, Bukovina and Podolia – was another opportunity to take more photos for two exhibitions in autumn. Here is a first selection, including images from Lviv (Lemberg, Lwow), Sokal, Velyki Mosty, Zhovkva, Staryi Sambir, Ternopil, Sataniv and Chernivtsi (Czernowitz). What are your favorites?
My trip is coming to an end. This morning I strolled with a group of architecture students through Chernivtsi (Czernowitz), now I ‘m after a few hours on the train already back in Lviv (Lemberg, Lwow). Ukrainians continue to mourn those killed on Maidan.
When I asked Mykola Kushnir, the director of the Jewish Museum in Chernivtsi (Czernowitz), how I could see the wall paintings in the former synagogue of Novoselitsa, he invited me spontaneously to go there with him today. A really nice and generous offer – especially as Mykola has the key to the synagogue. Thanks, Mykola, for this wonderful excursion – the last on this journey!
The second day in Chernivtsi (Czernowitz): I continue to swing between the past and present of the city, between the remains of the Jewish past and the ongoing protests.
Almost five hours my little marshrutka needed to make the way from Ternopil to Chernivtsi (Czernowitz). The reason is not the distance (175 km) but the conditions of Ukrainian roads. It’s nice to be back in Czernowitz, it’s almost like coming home. Here too, the protest movement is active.
A new year, new plans. In the second half of February 2014 I will travel in Ukraine again – to places that are familiar to me and others that are unknown territory yet. Do you have recommendations?
Sylvia de Swaan was born in Czernowitz (Chernivtsi) in 1941. The worst time, if one were Jewish. Today she is a successful photographer in America. Sylvia has returned to take pictures – more than once. Images of trains, rails, her hometown, nightmares. Powerful images. In August 2013 she was in Czernowitz again and I was lucky enough to meet her. Once more we had many intensive conversations and experiences. A good reason for an interview a few monthes later, to see how her new works grow.
Since six years volunteers from all over the world work in the Jewish cemetery of Chernivtsi (Czernowitz). What do they experience and what is the progress in cleaning the cemetery from rampant vegetation?
Vanished World 