Annica Karlsson Rixon & Anna Viola Hallberg
Filming Leaving Your Traces, Kharkiv, Ukraine

A general translation of what Sasha talks about in the interview:

"So I say that a very significant side of any event is informing and highlighting it in media. Both at regional and national level. Of course the last one reaches much more people. So it’s very important when press is involved. Though we have some problems with ranging the press, for instance, particular TV-channels who work with support of some political power or people who have big money or business. So sometimes a question of censorship is rised. 

Recently an exhibition “State of Mind” opened. It’s the event of Anna Viola Hallberg and Annica Karlsson Rixon. The uniqueness of this exhibition is that it’s carried out in a state municipal gallery, not commercial one. We as the organizers of activities accompany the exhibition invited to the opening around 10 representatives of regional press. So we got information that one of the subjects would not be edited to the ether because of lgbtq-subjects of the exhibition. So unfortunately as we can see censorship still exists though it’s not wide.  

It seems to me that such decisions should not be. Because the exhibition is not about lgbtq. This is symbiosis between art and lgbtq. And both sides are equal. The exhibition is interesting to different people. It is not about homosexual people - it’s about people. To my mind one of the best ways to represent lgbtq-subjects is to combine them with other spheres of life. This exhibition is a great step to informing the society about who are lesbians, who are gay-men, that they live the same lives as other people do – that they want to develop, educate kids and that they have the same needs and aspirations. 

As an example: on May, 17 – International Day Against Homophobia – Women Association “Sphere” (Ukraine, Kharkiv) carried out the movie demonstration. So people who came to the cinema wanted to see the movie – a piece of art, not just to see a lesbian. So it’s not ok to narrow all the things for lgbtq-people to their specific in being homosexual. And it’s totally necessary to mix this interest with other fields of every day life."



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