(2015 -2016)
Fomenko’s The Honor Roll (2015) is in fact a series of reproductions of found material: it shows half-ruined discarded photographs that had belonged to a Ukrainian military cantonment and were ditched after the place was ceded to Russian troops without a fight. In his statement the artist explains:
Winter of 2015, Sevastopol. A rubbish dump. As I was passing by, my eyes stumbled upon the artifacts of a Ukrainian military facility: honor roll photos of Ukrainian soldiers, their personal files, psychological tests – ruthless documents of Crimea’s most recent history. I began to dig specifically, with a rake, clearing the piles of debris, like an archaeologist, carefully and gently.
The portraits in this expressive Fomenko’s work appear like zombie phantoms, a spiritual visitation of the seemingly bloodless war.
(Text : Igor Manko )
Exhibition in Mystetskiy Arsenal, Ukraine 2017 :
USA, Buffalo 2019:
Dummy photoartbook :
«The honor roll» in press
VITALY FOMENKO 