The festival, which might mark its fifth anniversary this September, is now under threat. The alarm was raised by the founder and initiator of the contemporary art forum GogolFest, Vladyslav Troitsky, who had dreamt of turning Kyiv into a cultural capital of Eastern Europe. This time around the state (specifically the Ministry of Culture and Tourism), which had always provided the premises for the events, indicated that it would only provide moral support, reports Deutsche Welle. According to Troitsky, only the municipal authorities of Kyiv have agreed to render material help to the forum, “yet the offer of 250,000 hryvnias is apparently insufficient for an event with a minimum budget of half a million dollars.”
By the way, last year the organizers of GogolFest also faced the problem of not having a venue to hold the planned events, and it wasn’t until the very last moment that Troitsky and his team were able to hold the forum at the premises of the Dovzhenko Film Studio. This year the managers of Expocenter Ukraine had promised to provide their building at a favorable price. Yet a change of management followed, and the new CEO demanded the artistic event pay the full costs.
“The potential loss of GogolFest would be a step back in the development of cultural life for Kyiv and the whole of Ukraine,” believes Harald Hermann, director at the department for culture, education, and minorities at the Embassy of Germany to Ukraine. “This will be especially hard on young innovative artists, for whom the festival has become a kind of medium for contacts with the public. However, there still is some room for hope. The organizers should turn to foreign and international foundations for help.”
Meanwhile, the diplomat said it was not wise to accuse the state alone for the festival’s problems. According to Hermann, the financing of cultural events is a problem for state and municipal governments in Western Europe as well, especially in times of economic crisis.
