A Place to Hide – an exhibition by Aleksandra Kossowska in Liberec

We invite you to visit the exhibition of photographs by Aleksandra Kossowska, A Place to Hide, at the North Bohemian Museum in Liberec. The exhibition, documenting the wartime reality of air raid shelters in Ukraine, will be on view until June 1, 2026.

The exhibition is a visual record of how the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia has forced a complete shift in the perception of public and private space. The project documents the adaptation of previously overlooked places—basements, cellars, and technical corridors—which, under new safety regulations, have become the closest available shelters for civilians.

Since July 2022, having a certified shelter with a defined capacity has become a condition for the operation of public institutions in Ukraine. The exhibition allows viewers to observe the transformation of these spaces: from technical backrooms into centers of social life, places of learning, and sites of refuge.

The security regime imposed by the war directly affects social structures and the organization of everyday life. This is clearly visible in the case of the Special School in Hlynske (Sumy region). Due to the limited capacity of the shelter (53 places for 88 students), the institution—serving as a boarding school for children with disabilities—must operate on a rotational basis. Children spend part of their time at the facility and part at home, which significantly disrupts the continuity of their education and therapy.

Similar challenges affect the majority of educational institutions in Ukraine. Many schools, attended by more than a thousand students, must organize schedules in such a way that every student can be accommodated in a shelter in case of an air raid. This results in extended school hours and the necessity of operating in shifts. During the day, these spaces serve students, while in the evenings and at night they are made available to local residents.

The photographs were taken while accompanying humanitarian missions of the organization SmartAid.

The context of the exhibition is framed by the anniversary of the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Kuratorki wystawy:

Alena Čechová 

Curator of photographic exhibitions and a student at the Institute of Creative Photography (ITF) at the University of Silesia in Opava. In her research and curatorial practice, she combines knowledge of contemporary documentary photography with a background in psychology. She specializes in adaptive strategies and coping mechanisms, as well as cross-cultural psychology. This unique combination allows her to analyze images not only in aesthetic terms, but primarily as records of human attitudes in situations of crisis and extremity.

Ewa Laskowska 
Co-founder of the POLECZKI.ART Foundation, curator, and photographer. A student at the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava and a member of the Polish Union of Art Photographers (ZPAF). In her artistic practice, she focuses on creative photography and the relationship between humans and the landscape and natural environment. As a curator, she concentrates on projects documenting spatial transformations and the social role of images in situations of crisis.

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