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Between sound and silence
Live at the Palace
Between sound and silence
Villars Palace is delighted to welcome Yevhen Kovtomiuk, a Ukrainian humanist photographer whose work transcends travel photography, exploring landscapes as reflections of inner journeys and fostering dialogue between people, cultures, and the natural world.
Venue: Salon Hergé / Theater Hall
The exhibition moves from the edge of the world to the memory of the Earth.
From outer space to inner experience.
From the human trace to the living planet.
From noise to silence.
From a single moment to great memory.
Short descriptions of the 14 works:
1. At the edge of the world
The exhibition begins at a boundary. It is the point where the familiar world ends and the space of the unknown opens. Here the first silence is born — the silence of the horizon,
the ocean and the human being before a vast space.
2. Salt desert
After the edge of the world, the viewer enters a white space of almost absolute silence.
The bicycle becomes a small sign of human presence within immensity.
This is not movement, but a pause before a long inner road.
3. Summer among the Inuit
The northern summer appears as an unexpected softness within a severe world of ice, stone and water.
The human settlement looks small, yet alive — a sign of warmth at the edge of the cold Earth.
This is the silence of life that continues despite the scale of nature.
4. The leaving
Here, the human theme enters the exhibition: distance, memory, a step into the unknown.
It is not a dramatic gesture, but a quiet disappearance into time.
The sound is already fading, andonly the trace remains.
5. Eternity and a moment
This work brings together two scales: the great time of nature and the brief human presence.
A small figure before the vast space becomes a sign of the fragility of life.
In theexhibition, this is a moment that touches eternity.
6. The road of Christ and pilate
Here the road becomes not only a physical path, but a space of choice, doubt and responsibility.
It does not simply lead forward; it leads inward, into the human being.
This is a quietmoral tension between light and shadow.
7. In waiting
The ball lies in silence, yet future movement, strike, sound and play are already present within it.
This is the moment before an event, when the world has frozen for one second.
In this work, silence becomes tension.
8. Above the noise
Flamingos fly above the airport, above technology, above human noise.
Their natural flight intersects with civilisation, but does not submit to it.
This is an image of living silence passing above the noise of the world.
9. Duet of silence
The two flamingo figures form an almost musical duet without sound.
The water doubles them in a mirror reflection, turning the scene into a silent score.
This is one of the most delicate pauses of the exhibition.
10. Road into the mist
The road enters a space where the end is no longer visible.
The mist does not close the road; it makes itdeeper and more open.
This is movement into the unknown, where silence becomes part of the path itself.
11. The path to Kilimanjaro
After the mist, a vertical direction appears — movement not only forward, but upward.
This work speaks of effort, endurance and inner ascent.
Here the road becomes a form of spiritual labour.
12. Capillaries of the earth
The Earth appears not as a landscape, but as a living organism.
Lines, rivers and structures recall the circulatory system of the planet.
This is the moment when the viewer begins to listen not to the human being, but to the Earth itself.
13. Towards
A small human figure moves towards the light. And it seems that the light is also moving towards the figure.
After roads, mist and the vast Earth, this work restores hope and a human direction.
14. Memory of the Earth
The final work carries the exhibition into a scale of time greater than human life.
Ice, mass, cold and light create an image of planetary memory.
Here sound finally disappears, and the deep silence of the Earth remains.
About the artist:
Yevhen Kovtoniuk is a Ukrainian photographer, traveller and humanist.
His photography has grown out of a long-standing dialogue with people, cultures, landscapes and memory.
It is connected with travel, but it cannot be reduced to travel photography.
In his works, space becomes an interlocutor: mountains, glaciers, deserts, shores,roads, birds, water, light and horizons reveal not only geography, but also the inner path of the human being.
Yevhen Kovtoniuk has held dozens of solo exhibitions in Ukraine and abroad, including in Kyiv, New York,Marseille, Baku, London and at the Palais des Nations, the United Nations Office at Geneva. His works are held in the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Photography in Marseille, the British Library and private collections.
His life is also connected with education, cultural dialogue, the international Esperanto movement and the pursuit of understanding between people, languages, countries and cultures.
In this sense, his photography is not only an art of the image, but also a way of building bridges between different worlds.
In Between Sound and Silence, photography does not illustrate music, but extends its silence.
The fourteen works form a journey from the edge of the world and the white desert to the human trace, expectation, flight, mist, ascent, the living structure of the Earth and its deep memory.
This is an exhibition about silence that is not emptiness.
It is the silence of space, road, water, bird, ice, light and human presence before the vast world.
Acquisition of works
All works are available as limited edition fine art prints, produced on EcoBond / aluminium composite panel, signed by the artist and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. Each work is issued in a limited edition of seven numbered prints.
Works may be acquired during the exhibition. Shipping can be arranged separately and is not included in the artwork price.
The edition numbers may be produced and sold in any order, but the total edition will not exceed seven prints in the declared format and material.
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