Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei: You Shouldn’t Have To See This

Recontemporary presents, on the occasion of Artissima 2025, the exhibition You Shouldn’t Have To See This, a project by Ukrainian artists Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei, who have made the relationship between art and political activism the core of their artistic inquiry. First unveiled at La Biennale di Venezia (2024), the work now arrives in Turin, carrying with it the urgency of a reflection that intertwines testimony and visual experimentation.

Malashchuk and Khimei have played a crucial role in raising public awareness of the devastating effects of war and its deeper — often invisible — consequences for society.

At the heart of the exhibition lies the eponymous video installation, You Shouldn’t Have To See This. The silence enveloping the images — projected across six LED walls of varying sizes — generates a moment of empathy that is as intense as it is fragile: sleeping children, vulnerable bodies evoking peace and innocence. Yet the viewer’s gaze is never innocent; alongside tenderness arises a deep unease. The images depict Ukrainian children who were kidnapped and deported to Russia, later brought back home. It is a war crime, with estimates ranging from 20,000 to over one million cases since 2014.

The title of the work also alludes to the conflict inherent in images that, in the digital age, are constantly imposed upon us — wars, tragedies, and disasters we witness, willingly or not, through our screens. According to the artists, the aesthetic qualities of such images risk creating an illusion of participation, if not even a sense of complacency. From this perspective, every image is first and foremost evidence of a crime, and only secondarily — and only potentially — a work of art: a work that, in truth, should never have had to exist.