May 7, 2026

In the Zone of Oblivion

Maxim Dondyuk

Maxim Dondyuk was interviewed by Gáspár Kéri for Punkt about his exhibition In the Zone of Oblivion – The Chornobyl Archive, on view at the Mai Manó House in Budapest from April 1 to May 17.

“When I first went to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone I didn’t know what I was looking for, or why I went there. But I needed solitude and silence. This emptied territory became a refuge for me from the chaos of war which started right after the Revolution of 2013–2014. I began exploring post-apocalyptic landscapes where nature had taken over, erasing traces of human presence. As I spent more and more time in the Zone, I started looking not at events, but at emptiness, and at what remains when people are gone. I began to feel emptiness as a form of memory, and I reconsidered my view of documentary practice.”