Photo exhibition "Participation. Diego and Frida" in the Kiev center of modern art "Mystetskyi Arsenal"

On August 9, the Kiev public saw for the first time a unique selection of documentary photographs from the lives of two prominent artists of the first half of the 20th century - Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Art in all its forms, passionate love, common political views, as well as worship of a single god - Painting, made this star couple a peculiar symbol of the era. They aroused in the people a thirst for creativity, as strong as the desire for freedom. What earned world fame and eternal appreciation of their compatriots.

It would seem that there are only 35 photographs… But what a story is behind each picture, how many emotional impulses and tragic life events! They seem to capture the fate of all of Mexico, undergoing a revolution at that time and learning to live by the new rules. The tandem of Frida and Diego is not just a union of two creative people, it is a union of souls bursting with pain for their people. Therefore, in the minds of Mexicans, they are symbolic figures who did not allow the violation of the merits of their own culture. The new, which does not destroy the old, but becomes a source of inspiration for a people strangled by other people’s trends. National identity in action is the essence of the creative path of these great artists.

Eve Istr