The Clock of War exhibition in Basel featured in Ukrainian media

The exhibition The Clock of War, which Kozak Buvette helped organise together with Ukrainian Photodiary and UNION Basel, was recently featured in several Ukrainian news reports.

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• 25.06.2026 — Ukrainian Photodiary
• 19.06.2026 — Ukrainian Photodiary
• 18.06.2026 — 1TV Odesa: «Погляд на себе зі сторони»

One report looks at how Ukrainian and Swiss visitors respond to the photographs and how their perspectives can differ.

Anna Trumpi, a member of the UNION Basel team and co-organiser of the exhibition, speaks about photography as a way to better understand complex subjects. For Swiss audiences, photographs of the war in Ukraine can make the subject more personal and easier to understand.

Grégoire Farbe, founder of Kozak Buvette and a visitor to the exhibition in Basel, shares that despite the horror of the war, he feels a connection with the people depicted in the photographs — as if he is experiencing a small part of their reality alongside them.

Natalia Petrova, a visitor to the exhibition in Odesa, speaks about the particular power of photography. Viewers see destroyed architectural landmarks and the faces of people waiting for loved ones who are still in captivity.

Vita, a visitor to the Basel exhibition, points out how easy it can be to forget about a war when it does not directly affect one's own life. This is why, in her view, it is especially important to show these photographs abroad, where people do not experience the war themselves.

The same images can also carry different meanings for Ukrainian and international viewers. A photograph showing the loss of an animal may represent loss to an international viewer, while for a Ukrainian it can also tell a story of a life that was saved and of hope. Similarly, photographs of destroyed buildings may be seen by international viewers as a loss of the urban landscape, while Ukrainians may recognise the everyday reality of quickly clearing the aftermath of an attack.

For Ukrainians, The Clock of War is also a way of looking at themselves through the eyes of others. The exhibition is organised into 12 thematic sections, including the loss of loved ones, the loss of home and the loss of childhood.

Some of the most powerful photographs are not necessarily those showing the physical aftermath of missile and drone attacks, but the faces of people who continue to live and fight despite everything.

About Ukrainian Photodiary

Natalia Mykhailenko, a co-organiser of the Ukrainian Photodiary project who helps with its work in Odesa, speaks about the initiative and its development.

The project was founded by Swiss photographer Patrick Lüthy and is an open photographic archive documenting everyday life in Ukraine during the war. Anyone can contribute photographs through the Ukrainian Photodiary website.

Ukrainian Photodiary is a charitable project. Funds raised through the project support the humanitarian needs of civilians in Ukraine, including medicines.

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