The exhibition Chernobyl. Expedition to the Lost Land is to take place from December 2011 – to March 2012 on the premises of the Уthnological Collection of the Freiburg Municipal Museum. This international project was made possible due to the cooperation of the exhibition organizers with the Institute of Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Lviv); the Center for Studies of History and Culture of East European Jewry of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Kyiv); and the National Library of Ukraine (Kyiv).

The Chernobyl disaster took place 25 years ago, and ever since the word Chernobyl has meant “terrible anthropogenic catastrophe” to humanity. Many events were timed to the anniversary of the accident, all geared to remind people of the horrors of environmental threats and inciting thought of preventing similar disasters in the future.

The accident deprived a multitude of people of health and life itself, destroyed the region's ecosystem, and wiped out the area's distinctive traditional culture. The exhibition Chernobyl. Expedition to the Lost Land emhasizes the life of the region before the tragedy. The exhibition demonstrates the specifics of everyday rural life and traditional culture of Ukrainians and Jews from villages and small towns of Polesye.
 
Polesye is one of the few areas in Ukraine that has managed to preserve and bring authentic ancient traditional culture into the twentieth century almost entirely without distortions caused by industrialization and modernization. This region has drawn the attention of ethnographers as early as the XIX century, and many artifacts that were collected in ethnographic expeditions later became museum exhibit items. The Chernobyl accident became a new challenge for ethnographic expeditions, as the evacuation of the population from the exclusion zone in practice meant the destruction of the local traditional culture. The exhibition Chernobyl. Expedition to the Lost Land became a unique opportunity to experience the lost life of Polesye in full. The exhibition provides an excursion into local folk architecture, farming and crafts (beekeeping, fishing, hunting, gathering berries and mushrooms), people's clothes, jewelry, embroidery, and weaving.
 
Few people today pay attention to the fact that Chernobyl itself, as well as many small towns that now lie within the exclusion zone, were traditionally Jewish towns. In the second half of the XVIII century, Chernobyl was one of the main centers of Hasidism.: the Chernobyl Hasidic dynasty was founded by rabbi Menahem Nahum Tversky, and even today many pilgrims come to Chernobyl to visit his grave. With materials provided for the exhibition by the Center for Studies of History and Culture of East European Jewry of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Institute of Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and the National Library of Ukraine, the exhibition presents the main milestones of the traditional culture of the Jews of Chernobyl and other towns in the exclusion zone. The exhibits included sacred books of the XVII-XIX centuries published in the printing houses of the region, photographs of synagogues (both modern photos and images of buildings that have not survived to the present), ornamentations of the Torah scrolls: crowns, Torah shields, pointers for reading the Torah (yads); items from the interior decor of synagogues: precious fabrics for wrapping the Torah scroll (Torah mantles), curtains (Torah bimas), carved and molded candles, ritual items needed for the sacred lavabos (washings). Personal contact with the exhibition is created by family photos of the XIX - early XX centuries and oral history materials provided by The Center for Studies of History and Culture of East European Jewry of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
 
The opening ceremony took place on December 17 and included speeches by the Mayor of Freiburg, Dr. Dieter Salomon, and the director of the Municipal Museums of Freiburg, Dr. Tilmann von Stockhausen. In addition to representatives of local authorities and the public, the opening was attended by MEPs - Mr. Walter Mossman (Freiburg), and Ms. Rebecca Harms (Brussels) – old friends of Ukraine and the initiators of the exhibition. People's Artist of Ukraine Nina Matvienko gave a small recital and sang traditional songs of Polesye folk.
 
The catalog for the exhibition has already been published. Foreword to the publication was written by Mr. Walter Mossman. The catalog presents articles about the fate of traditional culture of Polesye, written by: member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Prof. Dr. Pavlyuk, curator of the Lviv Museum of Ethnography and Crafts Professor Dr. Hmelyuk, researcher of the Lviv Museum of Ethnography and Crafts Dr. Bulgakov, researcher of the Natural History Museum and Ethnographic Meetings Ms. Boltovska, researcher of the Natural History Museum and Ethnographic Meetimgs, Mr. Dyurrenberher. Texts about traditional Jewish culture and the Chernobyl branch of Hasidism were written by the director of the Center for Studies of History and Culture of East European Jewry of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Mr. Finberg and a researcher of the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Mrs. Malakhov.
 
The catalog contains over 500 reproductions of exhibit items.