Lviv – God’s Will
Viacheslav Poliakov
Overlapse
English and Ukrainian
Edited and designed by Tiffany Jones and Viacheslav Poliakov.
Softcover
First Edition
128 pages
240 x 170mm
2018
ISBN 9780994791986
Lviv–God’s Will comes from the name of a bus route that connects the city of Lviv with Bozha Volya, a small village lost deep in the forests along Ukraine’s border with the European Union — the promised land of wealth and eternal joy. The bus departs from the main gate of an old Lviv cemetery and travels west. In Ukrainian ‘Bozha Volya’ translates literally to mean ‘God’s will’, but also shares origin with the word ‘bozhevillia’, meaning madness. The scenes and structures shown in this book are as found in reality, and have not been interfered with other than to be isolated from their surroundings using colourful backgrounds. Neither are they confined to any geographical boundary; they reflect a state of mind. Beneath the surface of it’s peculiar aesthetics, Lviv – God’s Will reveals an underlying commentary about sociopolitical aspects of daily life in Ukraine.
About the Artist
Based in Lviv, Viacheslav Poliakov documents public spaces in small Ukrainian towns. He focuses on telling the visual stories of objects and structures, and their random creation ‘without a conscious author’. Born in Kherson in 1986, he completed an MA in Fine Arts from Kherson State University (2007) working in abstract ink drawings. He now works as a motion and graphic designer, combining his career with personal photography projects. He is a 2017 Foam Talent Finalist, and his work was shortlisted and presented in Circulations Festival (2018), Krakow Photomonth Showoff (2017), Photofestiwal Lodz Grand Prix (2017), Prix Levallois (2017), and the Vienna Photobook Festival Award (2017). This body of work has featured in BJP and Photoworks, and exhibited in Austria, France, Georgia, Germany, Netherlands, Poland and Ukraine.
via-poliakov.com
About the Publisher
Overlapse is an independent visual arts and photobooks publisher. They collaborate closely with photographers and artists to create unique, desirable, and beautifully produced books that highlight enduring and universal themes.
overlapse.com
Further Reading
https://www.lensculture.com/projects/523070-lviv-god-s-will
