Pairs Skating: Wolfgang Tillmans and Boris Mikhailov
04.25-09.28
Image: Boris Mikhailov, from Yesterday’s Sandwich series, 1970s, © Courtesy Boris and VitMikhailov and Barbara Weiss Galerie
Image: Wolfgang Tillmans, The State We’re In, A, 2015. Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne, David Zwirner, New York, Maureen Paley, London
Opening on April 25th, 2025 Pairs Skating: Wolfgang Tillmans and Boris Mikhailov is a world-first exhibition, bringing together the work of two of the most influential living photographers from the East and West in direct artistic dialogue. Though their work shares several distinct thematic threads, until now Tillmans and Mikhailov have only intersected in group exhibitions, never in a one-on-one exchange. Pairs Skating offers a rare opportunity to explore their artistic kinship, tracing connections in conceptual focus, central motifs and artistic language transcending geography, political contexts and cultural ambiance.
Presented by RIBBON International at the YermilovCentre in Kharkiv, this exhibition marks a significant moment for the city, and Ukraine’s wider artistic community. Kharkiv, with its rich photographic heritage as the birthplace of the Kharkiv School of Photography, provides a crucial backdrop to an exhibition that engages deeply with the very nature of photography itself. Mikhailov and Tillmans have each, in their own way, pushed the boundaries of the medium—Mikhailov through his experimental manipulations and raw social critique, Tillmans through his innovative approaches to printmaking, installation, and abstraction. Pairs Skating features examples of the most significant works from both artists, each carefully selected to highlight how Tillmans and Mikhailov speak to the past, the present, and the future of photography.
The title of the exhibition, borrowed from figure skaters moving in unison, provides an apt metaphor for two artists, who, despite growing up in vastly different political, cultural, and artistic environments, share a strikingly common photographic language. Through their lens, both artists capture the fragility, resilience and humour inherent in the human condition, the vulnerability of the body, and the notion of restriction—whether political, social, or personal. The exhibition proposes an intimate and expansive dialogue between two artists whose oeuvre reveals a fascination with the grandeur of the everyday, and the beauty in simplicity while fearlessly addressing larger socio-political undercurrents with visual motifs echoing one another.
Including Mikhailov’s groundbreaking Yesterday’s Sandwich (late 1960s-early 1970s), Case History (1997-1998), and Diary (late 1960s-ongoing) together with Tillmans’ famous Tukan (2010), Nite Queen (2013), Frank, in the shower (2015) among others, one of the exhibition’s striking juxtapositions is Mikhailov’s poignant depictions of Crimea alongside Tillmans’ The State We’re In. Both these collections use seascapes as a political commentary to explore notions of displacement and belonging, as well the search for home, identity, and the shifting borders.
Curated by Maria Isserlis and Tatiana Kochubinska, Pairs Skating highlights the shared artistic sensibilities while also prompting deeper questions about photography as a medium—its power to document, abstract, and evoke. In a time of shifting political and cultural landscapes, this exhibition seems especially urgent, offering a space to reflect on history, identity, and the universal need for maintaining social ties, humanity and solidarity.
Wolfgang Tillmans Few artists have shaped the scope of contemporary art and influenced younger generations more than Wolfgang Tillmans (1968, Remscheid). In a career spanning almost four decades, he has consistently redefined the medium of photography through a seamless integration of genres, subjects, techniques, and exhibition strategies. Tillmans seeks to expand the poetic possibilities of the medium while addressing the fundamental question of what it means to create pictures in an increasingly image-saturated world. In recent years, Tillmans has been more directly involved in political activism. In tandem with his ongoing Truth Study Center project (begun in 2005), he has created posters for the anti-Brexit campaign in Britain and in response to right-wing populism in Germany. Work by the artist is held in museum collections worldwide. Tillmans lives and works in Berlin and London.
Boris Mikhailov (born 1938, Kharkiv, USSR, based in Berlin) is a key figure of the Kharkiv School of Photography and one of the great masters of contemporary photography. Initially trained as an electromechanical engineer, Mikhailov taught himself photography and developed a socially conscious practice that examines human conditions in rapidly changing environments. His acclaimed series Case History (1997–1998) documents the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse, highlighting the struggles of vulnerable populations with a sharp and often nihilistic humor. A recipient of the Hasselblad Award, his work has been exhibited worldwide, including at MoMA in New York. He lives and works in Berlin and Kharkiv.
Maria Isserlis (1986, Kyiv, based in Berlin-Dresden) is a senior curator and an art historian. Since 2022 she has been curator and the head of international relations at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. In 2019 she was part of the curatorial team of the Albertinum Museum (exhibitions Kaleidoscope of Histories. Art from Ukraine and Change to Come), at the same time curating a solo exhibition of Alban Muja at the National Gallery of Kosovo. Deputy Chair of Kulturstiftung Ukraine and visiting lecturer at the Berlin University of the Arts. She was general coordinator of Manifesta 10 (St. Petersburg) and member of the curatorial team of Manifesta 11 (Zurich). In 2016 she became exhibtion director of Space Force Construction (Venice) and co-curator of AKI AORA (Mexico), since 2018 co-founder of the A:D:Curatorial platform.
Tatiana Kochubinska (1985, Kyiv, based in Kyiv) is an art historian, independent curator, author, and lecturer. In 2020, she co-edited Euphoria and Fatigue: Ukrainian Art and Society after 2014 for Obieg magazine. In 2022, she was a fellow at ZKM, Karlsruhe, DE and joined the curatorial team of antiwarcoalition.art. In 2023, she co-curated Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories. Ukrainian art 1912-2023 (Albertinum Museum, Dresden, DE) and in 2024, she co-curated Maybe We Can Have Fun Together by Ivan Svitlychnyi (Arsenal Gallery, Białystok, PL), Landscapes of an Ongoing Past (Urbane Künste Ruhr, Essen, DE) and Sense of Safety (YermilovCentre, Kharkiv, UA and across Europe).
Yermilov Centre
YermilovCentre is a contemporary art centre founded in Kharkiv in 2012. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, YermilovCentre became a refuge for artists and their families, providing them with both physical safety and a space where their creativity could thrive.
The Centre’s multi-level, two-storey space, covering a total area of 1,500 sqm, provides unique opportunities for creating and presenting art projects. YermilovCentre serves as an multidisciplinary platform for showcasing contemporary art from Ukraine and the international art community. YermilovCentre’s activities aim to culturally integrate Ukraine into the global context through the organization of exhibition projects and art residencies, implementation of an educational program, and support for the international mobility of experts and artists.
RIBBON International is a platform supporting historic and contemporary Ukrainian arts and culture in the form of exhibitions, artist commissions, public programs and grants. RIBBON runs through Ukraine by way of its railway system. RIBBON aims to provide support to the endangered legacies of Ukraine's cultural and artistic heritage, as well as to artists, cultural producers, contemporary culture and institutions throughout Ukraine in their fight for cultural autonomy.
Dates: 25 April - 28 September 2025
Location: YermilovCentre, Kharkiv, Maydan Svobody, 4 (Square of Freedom),
Contact Information: yermilovcentre@gmail.com, +380 50 197 6229
Opening Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 12:00 — 19:00, free entrance
25.04 - 28.09
Image: Boris Mikhailov, from Yesterday’s Sandwich series, 1970s, © Courtesy Boris and VitMikhailov and Barbara Weiss Galerie
Image: Wolfgang Tillmans, The State We’re In, A, 2015. Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne, David Zwirner, New York, Maureen Paley, London
Opening on April 25th, 2025 Pairs Skating: Wolfgang Tillmans and Boris Mikhailov is a world-first exhibition, bringing together the work of two of the most influential living photographers from the East and West in direct artistic dialogue. Though their work shares several distinct thematic threads, until now Tillmans and Mikhailov have only intersected in group exhibitions, never in a one-on-one exchange. Pairs Skating offers a rare opportunity to explore their artistic kinship, tracing connections in conceptual focus, central motifs and artistic language transcending geography, political contexts and cultural ambiance.
Presented by RIBBON International at the YermilovCentre in Kharkiv, this exhibition marks a significant moment for the city, and Ukraine’s wider artistic community. Kharkiv, with its rich photographic heritage as the birthplace of the Kharkiv School of Photography, provides a crucial backdrop to an exhibition that engages deeply with the very nature of photography itself. Mikhailov and Tillmans have each, in their own way, pushed the boundaries of the medium—Mikhailov through his experimental manipulations and raw social critique, Tillmans through his innovative approaches to printmaking, installation, and abstraction. Pairs Skating features examples of the most significant works from both artists, each carefully selected to highlight how Tillmans and Mikhailov speak to the past, the present, and the future of photography.
The title of the exhibition, borrowed from figure skaters moving in unison, provides an apt metaphor for two artists, who, despite growing up in vastly different political, cultural, and artistic environments, share a strikingly common photographic language. Through their lens, both artists capture the fragility, resilience and humour inherent in the human condition, the vulnerability of the body, and the notion of restriction—whether political, social, or personal. The exhibition proposes an intimate and expansive dialogue between two artists whose oeuvre reveals a fascination with the grandeur of the everyday, and the beauty in simplicity while fearlessly addressing larger socio-political undercurrents with visual motifs echoing one another.
Including Mikhailov’s groundbreaking Yesterday’s Sandwich (late 1960s-early 1970s), Case History (1997-1998), and Diary (late 1960s-ongoing) together with Tillmans’ famous Tukan (2010), Nite Queen (2013), Frank, in the shower (2015) among others, one of the exhibition’s striking juxtapositions is Mikhailov’s poignant depictions of Crimea alongside Tillmans’ The State We’re In. Both these collections use seascapes as a political commentary to explore notions of displacement and belonging, as well the search for home, identity, and the shifting borders.
Curated by Maria Isserlis and Tatiana Kochubinska, Pairs Skating highlights the shared artistic sensibilities while also prompting deeper questions about photography as a medium—its power to document, abstract, and evoke. In a time of shifting political and cultural landscapes, this exhibition seems especially urgent, offering a space to reflect on history, identity, and the universal need for maintaining social ties, humanity and solidarity.
Wolfgang Tillmans Few artists have shaped the scope of contemporary art and influenced younger generations more than Wolfgang Tillmans (1968, Remscheid). In a career spanning almost four decades, he has consistently redefined the medium of photography through a seamless integration of genres, subjects, techniques, and exhibition strategies. Tillmans seeks to expand the poetic possibilities of the medium while addressing the fundamental question of what it means to create pictures in an increasingly image-saturated world. In recent years, Tillmans has been more directly involved in political activism. In tandem with his ongoing Truth Study Center project (begun in 2005), he has created posters for the anti-Brexit campaign in Britain and in response to right-wing populism in Germany. Work by the artist is held in museum collections worldwide. Tillmans lives and works in Berlin and London.
Boris Mikhailov (born 1938, Kharkiv, USSR, based in Berlin) is a key figure of the Kharkiv School of Photography and one of the great masters of contemporary photography. Initially trained as an electromechanical engineer, Mikhailov taught himself photography and developed a socially conscious practice that examines human conditions in rapidly changing environments. His acclaimed series Case History (1997–1998) documents the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse, highlighting the struggles of vulnerable populations with a sharp and often nihilistic humor. A recipient of the Hasselblad Award, his work has been exhibited worldwide, including at MoMA in New York. He lives and works in Berlin and Kharkiv.
Maria Isserlis (1986, Kyiv, based in Berlin-Dresden) is a senior curator and an art historian. Since 2022 she has been curator and the head of international relations at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. In 2019 she was part of the curatorial team of the Albertinum Museum (exhibitions Kaleidoscope of Histories. Art from Ukraine and Change to Come), at the same time curating a solo exhibition of Alban Muja at the National Gallery of Kosovo. Deputy Chair of Kulturstiftung Ukraine and visiting lecturer at the Berlin University of the Arts. She was general coordinator of Manifesta 10 (St. Petersburg) and member of the curatorial team of Manifesta 11 (Zurich). In 2016 she became exhibtion director of Space Force Construction (Venice) and co-curator of AKI AORA (Mexico), since 2018 co-founder of the A:D:Curatorial platform.
Tatiana Kochubinska (1985, Kyiv, based in Kyiv) is an art historian, independent curator, author, and lecturer. In 2020, she co-edited Euphoria and Fatigue: Ukrainian Art and Society after 2014 for Obieg magazine. In 2022, she was a fellow at ZKM, Karlsruhe, DE and joined the curatorial team of antiwarcoalition.art. In 2023, she co-curated Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories. Ukrainian art 1912-2023 (Albertinum Museum, Dresden, DE) and in 2024, she co-curated Maybe We Can Have Fun Together by Ivan Svitlychnyi (Arsenal Gallery, Białystok, PL), Landscapes of an Ongoing Past (Urbane Künste Ruhr, Essen, DE) and Sense of Safety (YermilovCentre, Kharkiv, UA and across Europe).
Yermilov Centre
YermilovCentre is a contemporary art centre founded in Kharkiv in 2012. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, YermilovCentre became a refuge for artists and their families, providing them with both physical safety and a space where their creativity could thrive.
The Centre’s multi-level, two-storey space, covering a total area of 1,500 sqm, provides unique opportunities for creating and presenting art projects. YermilovCentre serves as an multidisciplinary platform for showcasing contemporary art from Ukraine and the international art community. YermilovCentre’s activities aim to culturally integrate Ukraine into the global context through the organization of exhibition projects and art residencies, implementation of an educational program, and support for the international mobility of experts and artists.
RIBBON International is a platform supporting historic and contemporary Ukrainian arts and culture in the form of exhibitions, artist commissions, public programs and grants. RIBBON runs through Ukraine by way of its railway system. RIBBON aims to provide support to the endangered legacies of Ukraine's cultural and artistic heritage, as well as to artists, cultural producers, contemporary culture and institutions throughout Ukraine in their fight for cultural autonomy.
Dates: 25 April - 28 September 2025
Location: YermilovCentre, Kharkiv, Maydan Svobody, 4 (Square of Freedom),
Contact Information: yermilovcentre@gmail.com, +380 50 197 6229
Opening Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 12:00 — 19:00, free entrance
25.04 - 28.09
Image: Boris Mikhailov, from Yesterday’s Sandwich series, 1970s, © Courtesy Boris and VitMikhailov and Barbara Weiss Galerie
Image: Wolfgang Tillmans, The State We’re In, A, 2015. Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne, David Zwirner, New York, Maureen Paley, London
Opening on April 25th, 2025 Pairs Skating: Wolfgang Tillmans and Boris Mikhailov is a world-first exhibition, bringing together the work of two of the most influential living photographers from the East and West in direct artistic dialogue. Though their work shares several distinct thematic threads, until now Tillmans and Mikhailov have only intersected in group exhibitions, never in a one-on-one exchange. Pairs Skating offers a rare opportunity to explore their artistic kinship, tracing connections in conceptual focus, central motifs and artistic language transcending geography, political contexts and cultural ambiance.
Presented by RIBBON International at the YermilovCentre in Kharkiv, this exhibition marks a significant moment for the city, and Ukraine’s wider artistic community. Kharkiv, with its rich photographic heritage as the birthplace of the Kharkiv School of Photography, provides a crucial backdrop to an exhibition that engages deeply with the very nature of photography itself. Mikhailov and Tillmans have each, in their own way, pushed the boundaries of the medium—Mikhailov through his experimental manipulations and raw social critique, Tillmans through his innovative approaches to printmaking, installation, and abstraction. Pairs Skating features examples of the most significant works from both artists, each carefully selected to highlight how Tillmans and Mikhailov speak to the past, the present, and the future of photography.
The title of the exhibition, borrowed from figure skaters moving in unison, provides an apt metaphor for two artists, who, despite growing up in vastly different political, cultural, and artistic environments, share a strikingly common photographic language. Through their lens, both artists capture the fragility, resilience and humour inherent in the human condition, the vulnerability of the body, and the notion of restriction—whether political, social, or personal. The exhibition proposes an intimate and expansive dialogue between two artists whose oeuvre reveals a fascination with the grandeur of the everyday, and the beauty in simplicity while fearlessly addressing larger socio-political undercurrents with visual motifs echoing one another.
Including Mikhailov’s groundbreaking Yesterday’s Sandwich (late 1960s-early 1970s), Case History (1997-1998), and Diary (late 1960s-ongoing) together with Tillmans’ famous Tukan (2010), Nite Queen (2013), Frank, in the shower (2015) among others, one of the exhibition’s striking juxtapositions is Mikhailov’s poignant depictions of Crimea alongside Tillmans’ The State We’re In. Both these collections use seascapes as a political commentary to explore notions of displacement and belonging, as well the search for home, identity, and the shifting borders.
Curated by Maria Isserlis and Tatiana Kochubinska, Pairs Skating highlights the shared artistic sensibilities while also prompting deeper questions about photography as a medium—its power to document, abstract, and evoke. In a time of shifting political and cultural landscapes, this exhibition seems especially urgent, offering a space to reflect on history, identity, and the universal need for maintaining social ties, humanity and solidarity.
Wolfgang Tillmans Few artists have shaped the scope of contemporary art and influenced younger generations more than Wolfgang Tillmans (1968, Remscheid). In a career spanning almost four decades, he has consistently redefined the medium of photography through a seamless integration of genres, subjects, techniques, and exhibition strategies. Tillmans seeks to expand the poetic possibilities of the medium while addressing the fundamental question of what it means to create pictures in an increasingly image-saturated world. In recent years, Tillmans has been more directly involved in political activism. In tandem with his ongoing Truth Study Center project (begun in 2005), he has created posters for the anti-Brexit campaign in Britain and in response to right-wing populism in Germany. Work by the artist is held in museum collections worldwide. Tillmans lives and works in Berlin and London.
Boris Mikhailov (born 1938, Kharkiv, USSR, based in Berlin) is a key figure of the Kharkiv School of Photography and one of the great masters of contemporary photography. Initially trained as an electromechanical engineer, Mikhailov taught himself photography and developed a socially conscious practice that examines human conditions in rapidly changing environments. His acclaimed series Case History (1997–1998) documents the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse, highlighting the struggles of vulnerable populations with a sharp and often nihilistic humor. A recipient of the Hasselblad Award, his work has been exhibited worldwide, including at MoMA in New York. He lives and works in Berlin and Kharkiv.
Maria Isserlis (1986, Kyiv, based in Berlin-Dresden) is a senior curator and an art historian. Since 2022 she has been curator and the head of international relations at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. In 2019 she was part of the curatorial team of the Albertinum Museum (exhibitions Kaleidoscope of Histories. Art from Ukraine and Change to Come), at the same time curating a solo exhibition of Alban Muja at the National Gallery of Kosovo. Deputy Chair of Kulturstiftung Ukraine and visiting lecturer at the Berlin University of the Arts. She was general coordinator of Manifesta 10 (St. Petersburg) and member of the curatorial team of Manifesta 11 (Zurich). In 2016 she became exhibtion director of Space Force Construction (Venice) and co-curator of AKI AORA (Mexico), since 2018 co-founder of the A:D:Curatorial platform.
Tatiana Kochubinska (1985, Kyiv, based in Kyiv) is an art historian, independent curator, author, and lecturer. In 2020, she co-edited Euphoria and Fatigue: Ukrainian Art and Society after 2014 for Obieg magazine. In 2022, she was a fellow at ZKM, Karlsruhe, DE and joined the curatorial team of antiwarcoalition.art. In 2023, she co-curated Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories. Ukrainian art 1912-2023 (Albertinum Museum, Dresden, DE) and in 2024, she co-curated Maybe We Can Have Fun Together by Ivan Svitlychnyi (Arsenal Gallery, Białystok, PL), Landscapes of an Ongoing Past (Urbane Künste Ruhr, Essen, DE) and Sense of Safety (YermilovCentre, Kharkiv, UA and across Europe).
Yermilov Centre
YermilovCentre is a contemporary art centre founded in Kharkiv in 2012. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, YermilovCentre became a refuge for artists and their families, providing them with both physical safety and a space where their creativity could thrive.
The Centre’s multi-level, two-storey space, covering a total area of 1,500 sqm, provides unique opportunities for creating and presenting art projects. YermilovCentre serves as an multidisciplinary platform for showcasing contemporary art from Ukraine and the international art community. YermilovCentre’s activities aim to culturally integrate Ukraine into the global context through the organization of exhibition projects and art residencies, implementation of an educational program, and support for the international mobility of experts and artists.
RIBBON International is a platform supporting historic and contemporary Ukrainian arts and culture in the form of exhibitions, artist commissions, public programs and grants. RIBBON runs through Ukraine by way of its railway system. RIBBON aims to provide support to the endangered legacies of Ukraine's cultural and artistic heritage, as well as to artists, cultural producers, contemporary culture and institutions throughout Ukraine in their fight for cultural autonomy.
Dates: 25 April - 28 September 2025
Location: YermilovCentre, Kharkiv, Maydan Svobody, 4 (Square of Freedom),
Contact Information: yermilovcentre@gmail.com, +380 50 197 6229
Opening Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 12:00 — 19:00, free entrance
Current events
25.04.25 – 28.09.25
exhibition
23.05.25 – 23.07.25
Exhibition
12.12.24 – 31.01.25
Exhibition
29.08.24 – 17.11.24
Exhibition
Current events
Current events
