Unveiled Ukraine Exhibition Opens at Luxembourg City Bierger-Center

On the afternoon of Wednesday 4 February 2026, the opening of the exhibition "Unveiled Ukraine" took place at the Bierger-Center in Place Guillaume II in Luxembourg-Ville, presented by the artist Kateryna Mostova.

The event started with an opening speech by Maurice Bauer, Chief Alderman (deputy mayor) of the City of Luxembourg, who explained that the war in Ukraine was difficult to see, also acknowledging that Luxembourg is not completely aware of all the horrors happening there. He noted that the war started nearly four years ago, and that the situation remained very dramatic, with difficult climatic situations, hunger, bombings and the constant danger Ukrainians face everyday. He also reminded the audience that even if we get tired of hearing about the war, we cannot look away from it and it is our duty to support Ukraine.

A video was played afterwards, featuring Philippe Schockweiler, a freelance journalist from Luxembourg, who compared the Nazi occupation of Luxembourg to the war in Ukraine. Their land was stolen, but this was about more than land, it was about homes, culture and human beings. He praised the Unveiled Ukraine project and the initiative to show it in Luxembourg.

The last speech was from Kateryna Mostova, photographer and sociologist, who created the project Unveiled Ukraine. She started off speaking in Luxembourgish, welcoming and thanking the audience for coming, and then switched to English for the rest of the speech. She explained that in 2014, she was forced to flee her home for Kyiv, because Russia had illegally annexed Crimea and Donbas. She noted that Ukrainians were attacked by their neighbours and had not expected it. This was the beginning of an endless carousel of horror and grief for her. She explained that in 2021, she participated in a gathering in Ukraine, where Ukrainians talked about 2014, and where a woman confessed she had been forced to stay in Crimea, since the Russians had captured one of her loved ones. This was a typical story for those directly affected, but for the rest of Ukrainian society, this story was shocking and a realisation of the gravity of the situation.

Kateryna Mostova decided then to do an open call on social media, to give people the opportunity to share their stories and preserve their memory. She created a documentary, which was shared in 2022, one month before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which put the project on hold. She confessed that it felt like a betrayal, since Ukrainians had given up their nuclear weapons in 1994, in exchange for freedom and safety from the Americans, Russians and the United Kingdom. She was forced to flee her home a second time, and arrived in Luxembourg, were she realised there was a lack of information. She restarted her documentary and photography project, sharing eight stories of ordinary Ukrainians and their daily nightmare. Kateryna Mostova cried when she talked about the horror Russians were putting Ukrainians through, describing it as "a genocide of the Ukrainian people, torture, rape, killing civilians, kidnapping Ukrainian children, destruction of cities and environmental devastation."

During a personal interview, Kateryna Mostova answered some questions, including the main aim of her project, to which she responded: "I wanted to provide more information (more than TV news and dry statistics) to locals, to show the war through people's stories". When asked about the responsibility she felt towards her country, Kateryna responded that "Luxembourg was quite challenging for me, especially during the first one and a half years. I kept encouraging myself, telling myself: you will get through this - you are Ukrainian. This whole project was created because of responsibility to my country". She added that Russians want to "re-write, erase history and Ukrainian reality". The artist explained that the exhibition in the Bierger-Center "brings together photography and the stories of ordinary people from Donbas and Crimea over a ten-year period (2014–2024), offering a deeper and more human perspective on the war". Kateryna was then asked if her personal and emotional link to Ukraine made her project more intimate and realistic; she explained that there was a deep personal link to the war in Ukraine, since she lived through the war and that she was "not observing from a distance - I am documenting a reality I belong to."

Kateryna Mostova was also asked for a quote to globally describe "Unveiled Ukraine", to which she responded: "Through this project, I wanted to give a voice to those who experienced war, so their stories are not forgotten."

The event continued with a musical performance: two women - Nadiya Balych and Nataliia Demchuk - dressed in central Ukrainian cultural clothing, sang and played (with a bandura) the songs "Hallelujah" and "Chervona Kalyna" - a famous Ukrainian song used as an emotional anchor for the courageous soldiers. Lastly, a surprise guest - Olha Petryk - played a duet and a solo with her violin in front of the guests, ending the event on a lighter, more festive note.

The exhibition will remain on display at the Bierger-Center until Friday 27 February 2026. Free admission.

JM