Beyond The Silence: Inspiring Dialogue Through Photography
The Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv is hosting the final full-scale exhibition of Beyond the Silence, bringing together 12 global photographers — including four Magnum photographers — in dialogue with one another. Its curators reflect on the scale of the collaborative photographic project and its lasting impact.
In the wake of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Magnum Photos, with the support of the Open Society Foundations, launched Beyond the Silence, a collaborative project that investigates the many manifestations of violence and survival across five distinct countries: Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Nigeria and Myanmar. The itinerant exhibition — showcasing the work of four Magnum photographers alongside eight international winners of an open call — has sparked dialogues among photographers and audiences around the world. With its diverse approaches to exploring themes such as occupation, colonialism and censorship through photography, the project represents the rich potential for future cross-cultural collaborations on silenced and untold narratives.
“The context of the project allows for a patchwork of parallel stories, which are based on the same relationships of violence that Ukraine is experiencing,” says Giulietta Palumbo, Global Editorial Director at Magnum Photos.
Since its launch in November 2024, the exhibition has been presented in various formats in Kazakhstan (Almaty), Mexico (Oaxaca and Mexico City) and Cambodia (Angkor). An opening in Nigeria (Lagos) is also planned for later this year. The final full-scale exhibition at the Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv, Ukraine brings together the work of all 12 photographers who took part in the project, including Magnum photographers Rafał Milach, Newsha Tavakolian, Antoine d’Agata, and Thomas Dworzak. Each presents 12 unique stories covering topics such as “Territory,” “Fight and/or Adaptation,” “Kidnapping and Censorship,” under the common theme of Violence.
According to the general curator Kateryna Radchenko, at least 300 people came to the opening from across Ukraine, with photographers from Zaporiyia, Luhtsk, Kiev, Odessa and Kharkiv attending a series of workshops and talks.
“One of the comments I received was that it was a nice balance between really hard topics and the way they are visually represented,” says Radchenko. The exhibition was designed to create an intimate dialogue between the audience and the work. “Several people told me that they were only able to see the exhibition one section at a time because it was too emotional for them,” the curator adds.
The Jam Factory Art Center, an exhibition space which opened two years ago, is underground, allowing for more security amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. Its location in Lviv also facilitates accessibility for international visitors. Beyond the Silence marked the first time the space hosted a photography exhibition, with its opening event, educational workshops, and photographer talks drawing an exceptional number of young people, according to Radchenko.
“This shows how photography can be a language for the youth, more accepted and easier to grasp than paintings or other mediums of art,” she says.
“The aim of this project was to bring Ukraine back into the world focus, to create a dialogue with other countries and populations, to allow Ukraine to come out of this isolation, but also to allow people to get a sense of what the population of Ukraine is experiencing,” says Palumbo.
The project’s previous exhibitions in Kazakhstan, Cambodia and Mexico also created enriching dialogues across the featured countries, as well as new artistic exchanges between Magnum and the winning photographers. “The aim is to talk about these important issues, but also to show them through the experience of one country, in order to arouse the interest of others,” Radchenko says.
“By showcasing these important, diverse narratives in Cambodia, we not only deepened the public understanding of shared challenges but also strengthened regional solidarity in the face of diminishing freedoms,” writes Jessica Lim, curator of the exhibition organized in Cambodia.
While aiming to open up channels for communication around the many repercussions of violence, Beyond the Silence faced censorship challenges and took steps to avoid putting photographers in precarious situations.
“Given the ongoing deterioration of independent media and the freedom of the press in Cambodia, APFW — the collective organizing the Angkor Photo Festival where the exhibition was held — carefully selected private venues to avoid potential censorship or government interference,” Lim writes. The collective also had to be careful when publishing communications and online content.
Each exhibition also invited local and international photographers to workshops and educational programs, which, as Radchenko says, provided an open space for fruitful exchanges and connections. In Mexico, workshops addressed how to approach sensitive topics without risking pushback or censorship from the authorities. In Cambodia, Antoine d’Agata and Sai, one of the winning photographers from Myanmar, shared insights on their professional projects. During the opening event, Sai urged the attendees to amplify the voices of Myanmar artists and activists, to ensure the country’s crisis involving armed conflicts remains visible on the global stage, according to the curator. In Nigeria, Giulietta Palumbo and Laurence Cornet, Editorial Director of Dysturb, a media outlet bringing photojournalism to public spaces, led a workshop on the realities of being silenced and how art can circumvent censorship and repression.
“For Magnum, this project is just the beginning of many, with the vision to stimulate and foster dialogues across ongoing global conflicts and to generate a large-scale impact,” Palumbo says, adding that today, impact is only feasible with continuity.
The Nigerian exhibition featuring the concept of Fight and/or Adaptation will open its doors to the public for the Lagos Photo Festival in October 2025.
