Ausstellung: Lia Dostlieva. Die Kynokephalen des Donbas

In the organizer's words:

Exhibition venue: KreativRaum D, Worringer Platz 20, 40210 Düsseldorf
Duration: 29.05 to 06.06.2025
Opening of the exhibition: 29.05.2025, 19.00 hrs

The myth of human-like creatures with dog heads ("cynocephali") inhabiting the eastern regions of present-day Ukraine goes back at least as far as Herodotus. Simmias, an ancient Greek philosopher, wrote: "A huge race, half man, half dog, lives there, Below the shoulders their heads grow out; Long jaws, shaggy tusks they bear; Many foreign languages they learned and can write, But when they want to speak, they only bark." (Bland & Merrivale's Greek Anthology, p. 121).

Nowadays, cynocephali can be seen all over the world. Their disturbed nest has taken root everywhere, invading areas inhabited by ordinary people. They walk the same streets as us, ride the same buses and even send their children to human schools. They can start talking to humans or even suddenly touch them. And yet they remain forever only half-human.

The social alienation of the people who were forced to leave the occupied Ukrainian territories turned them into contemporary cynocephali, displaced from their homes. At this moment, they are reminiscent of the dog-headed creatures seeking refuge among ordinary people, desperately but in vain trying to dissolve among them, to become like them.

This project explores the themes of alienation and stereotyping in the context of Ukraine's internally displaced persons and the "new myth" that emerges from them.

Each figure represents a specific person, an internally displaced person, who specifically asked to be depicted with a dog's head.

The event is part of the cooperation between the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Haus and the Junges Schauspiel Düsseldorf on Future is (t)here. Further cooperation partners: Tracks of Memory, Verein zur Förderung der Städtepartnerschaft Düsseldorf-Czernowitz e.V., Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf.