Material Evidence

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Material Evidence (Russian: Вещдоки) is an international exhibition first presented in Russia in 2013^[1][2] by Vladislav Shurigin and Denis Tukmakov with direct financial support from Zhurnalistskaya Pravda (Journalistic Truth), a Moscow-based newspaper,^{[3][unreliable source?]} indirectly financed by Internet Research Agency.^[4] Both Shurigin and Tukmakov are authors of for far right magazine Zavtra, members of the National Bolshevik Party^{[3][unreliable source?]} and nationalist Izborsk Club.^[5] The exhibition displays a strongly anti-Western and pro-Russian view on civil conflicts in Syria, Ukraine, Iraq and Afghanistan.^{[6][dead link]} It is advertised as an "evidence of USA aggression"^[1] and the section on Ukraine describes the events of surrounding Euromaidan as "upsurge of nationalists-banderovtsy groups" and War in Donbass as "opposition against banderovtsy and Western Oligarchs".^{[7][dead link]}

Photo exhibition is based on the material submitted by war correspondents illustrating countries where civil conflicts take place,^[8] including Andrey Stenin who died near Donetsk. The exhibition's original curator in Europe, Benjamin Hiller, is a German freelance photographer and journalist who works mainly on conflict photography in hotspots such as Syria and Ukraine.

The exhibition was held in a number of Russian, European, and American cities including Moscow, Ufa,^[8][9][10] Grozny, Brussels, Berlin,^[11] New York City. It is planned to hold the exhibition in Los Angeles and Washington, as well as Canada.^[12]

According to organizers, over 50 thousand people have visited the galleries.^[13]

While it was on display in New York City the exhibition was attacked and vandalized by group of people who Hiller claimed were neo-Nazis upset with Hiller's negative representation of Ukraine.^[14] As a result, some pictures had been defaced with black paint.^[15]

The exhibit has become controversial due to its ties to Russian extremist newspaper Zavtra and its connection to a widespread Russian propaganda content farm network.^[16] In an article by Gawker, according to the assistant curator of the New York exhibit "in Berlin, a "silent guy" visited, told the organizers he liked what he saw, then left. Later, he came back with a bag of cash and dropped it for them with no explanation."^[16] Russian state-sponsored company Internet Research Agency is among the main sponsors of the exhibition.^[4]

The organizers are also offering financial grants of 10-20,000 euro for journalists.^[17]

• Media portrayal of the Ukrainian crisis
• Internet Research Agency
• Andrey Stenin
• Syrian Civil War
• War correspondent

• Material Evidence Official Website