12 Star Gallery, Europe House
32 Smith Square, London SW1P 3EU

Exhibition open: 27 February 2025 – 31 May 2025

Free entry

The plural form in the title alludes to the image of architecture under destruction as well as to the architecture of destruction as circumstances and causes that radically and brutally affect and repurpose lived urban spaces in the times of crisis. The photographic selection foregrounds the effects of crisis through the relationship between space and figure. It explores the shape and degrees of life in the ailing figures of ruined buildings, monumental art, and paintings as well as in a scarce appearance of humans and animals. The spaces that these figures inhabit embody a fragile balance between refuge and entrapment.

The exhibition also sheds the light on war photographers and cultural workers who continue to relentlessly document the destruction of architecture and safeguard it for the future generations. Through the eyes of seven photographers from Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Germany, Portugal and Romania, the body of fourteen photographic pieces at once exposes the fragility of architectural materiality and the resilience of people who continue to live and create against the backdrop of destruction. It raises the question as to what lingers in the frame and the eyes of its beholder – despair or hope? Brought to life in Augmented Reality by the young team from Lviv in Ukraine, three objects of digitized cultural heritage in 3D come into dialogue with the photographic image of persistent destruction.

The exhibition curated by the Lithuanian-born Gabriele Salciute Civiliene, Associate Professor in Digital Humanities, King’s College London.

Organised by the European Parliament Liaison Office in the United Kingdom (EPLO London), in partnership with the Embassy of Lithuania in the UK, Lithuanian Culture Institute and the Ukrainian Institute London.