Exhibition of Achievements: Workers Who Left the Factory
artists: allan sekula, harun farocki, jean-luc godard, yarema malashchuk and roman khimei
organizer: pavilion of culture
speakers: anton kolomeitsev, david serlin, nazar bagnyuk
partner: goethe-institut ukraine
year: 2025 – 2026
The project focuses on the figure of the worker and the accompanying concepts of “commodity,” “consumer,” “product,” and “production,” exploring how this vocabulary is appropriated by culture. The exhibition brings together video works by Allan Sekula, Harun Farocki, Jean-Luc Godard, Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei.
The central work of the exhibition is the video by German film essayist Harun Farocki, “Workers Leaving the Factory” (1995). Scene after scene, actors leave factories to produce moving images. Other works focus on the reconstruction and reinterpretation of buildings left behind by the parade of workers, awaiting change: the next one and their own. In the video “The Creators of the Shopping Worlds” (2001), Farocki uses the language of “cinéma vérité” and closely observes the construction of consumer experiences: where to put white bread, where to put crusty bread, and how to fit a Greek restaurant into a German shopping mall in the style of Miami Vice. Hours of discussion, focus groups, and algorithmic planning — all to prolong the journey to the exit.
Ukrainian artists Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei continue to observe the implementation of architectural plans in building materials, immersing themselves in local and social contexts. The film “How It’s Made” (2021) follows the transformation of the Promprylad factory in Ivano-Frankivsk into an “impact-driven community platform”. A real “working-class drama” unfolds: the century-old enterprise was closed for revitalization to adapt it to the requirements of a gentrified city and the next generation of workers. In the duo's work “Kyiv’s Youth Leaving a Grocery Store” (2017), a simulated crowd of young people continues the Lumière brothers' and Farocki's idea, this time in a leisure context.
The video by American artist Allan Sekula, “Talk Given by Mr. Fred Lux at the Lux Clock Company manufacturing plant in Lebanon, Tennessee, on Wednesday, September 15, 1954” (1974), imitates the corporate manner of speech in the United States. The protagonist's rhetoric represents capitalist efficiency and “time as value,” appealing to the location of the speech — a local watch factory.
“Closed Jeans” (1987) by director Jean-Luc Godard is an advertising campaign for the French fashion brand Marithé + François Girbaud. Godard collages classic masterpieces of art with “real working class” goods, speculating on the object of the buyer's desire.
The exhibition is complemented by a set of published theoretical works by Harun Farocki and the Harun Farocki Institut, which are available for research in the exhibition hall.
“Exhibitions of Achievements: Workers Who Left the Factory” opens a series of reflections on what we call “achievements,” referring to the full name of the VDNG complex, part of which is the building that houses the Pavilion of Culture.
The project received support from the Goethe-Institut's Resilience Fund in Ukraine. For the fourth year in a row, the program continues to support cultural and educational institutions, as well as non-governmental organizations that demonstrate exceptional resilience in the face of full-scale Russian aggression.
Opening: December 19, 2025, 18:00
Exhibition dates: December 19, 2025 – January 18, 2026
Hours: Friday – Sunday, 12:00–20:00
During power outages, the exhibition will be closed; information about changes in the opening hours will be posted on the Pavilion of Culture's Instagram page.
Venue: Pavilion of Culture, Expocenter of Ukraine, Akademika Glushkova Ave, 1, Pavilion 13, Kyiv
Free admission